Children's experience of anger toward their parents and anger expression

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among children's experience of anger toward their parents, cognitive judgements, emotions, and target of anger expression. A total of 390 forth-through ninth-grade students participated in this study. Children's recent anger episodes were assessed in terms of the instigator (father or mother), cognitive judgments, anger expression, etc. By combining the instigator with the target of children's anger, two groups (congruent and incongruent) were identified and compared. The main results were as follows : (1) Compared to the congruent group, the incongruent group exhibited less hostile attribution toward the instigator's intention. (2) Incongruent group was more likely to choose a target lower in status and affection than their parents. (3) Compared to the congruent group, the incongruent group showed stronger feelings of happiness or irritation after they expressed their anger