The relationship between empathy, social anxiety and different types of aggressive behaviour in students

Agresivno ponašanje odnosi se na svako namjerno ponašanje kojemu je cilj nanošenje fizičke ili psihičke štete. Iako je većina prijašnjih istraživanja proučavala agresiju kod djece i adolescenata, određena agresivna ponašanja, poput relacijske agresije i agresije na internetu, predstavljaju problem i u mlađoj odrasloj dobi. Empatija je jedna od varijabli koja se u istraživanjima pokazala povezanom s agresivnim ponašanjem. Međutim, manjak je istraživanja koja su odvojeno proučavala emocionalni i kognitivni aspekt empatije i njihov odnos s agresijom. Također, socijalna anksioznost kao jedna od varijabli povezanih s deficitima socio-kognitivnih procesa rijetko je uzeta u obzir u istraživanjima agresije. Stoga je cilj ovog istraživanja bio ispitati odnos između empatije, socijalne anksioznosti i činjenja relacijske agresije i agresije na internetu kod studenata. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 329 studenata od koji 219 studentica i 110 studenata različitih studijskih smjerova u Republici Hrvatskoj. Korišteni su instrumenti: Upitnik kognitivne i emocionalne empatije (QCAE; Reniers i sur., 2011), Skala anksioznosti u socijalnim interakcijama (SIAS; Mattick i Clarke, 1989), Skala relacijske agresije (RAS, Loudin i sur., 2003) te Skala vršenja nasilja na internetu (CBPS; Lee i sur., 2015). Rezultati su pokazali kako je niska kognitivna empatija, ali ne i emocionalna empatija, značajan prediktor činjenja relacijske agresije i agresije na internetu. Socijalna anksioznost pokazala se značajnim moderatorom odnosa između niske emocionalne empatije i činjenja relacijske agresije, na način da je taj odnos bio značajniji kod osoba s visokom socijalnom anksioznosti. Također, viša relacijska agresija pokazala se značajnim prediktorom činjenja agresije na internetu.Aggressive behaviour refers to any intentional behaviour aimed at inflicting physical or psychological harm. Although previous research has mostly studied aggression in children and adolescents, some aggressive behaviours, such as relational aggression and cyber aggression, are also a problem in young adulthood. Empathy is one of the variables that has been associated with aggressive behaviour in previous studies. However, there is a lack of research that has separately studied the affective and cognitive aspects of empathy and their relationship to aggression. Also, social anxiety as one of the variables associated with deficits of socio-cognitive processes has rarely been considered in aggression research. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the relationship between empathy, social anxiety, and relational and cyber aggression in students. The sample consisted of 329 students, of which 219 female and 110 male students from various fields of study in the Republic of Croatia. Participants completed Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE; Reniers et al., 2011), Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS; Mattick and Clarke, 1989), Relational Aggression Scale (RAS, Loudin et al., 2003), and Cyberbullying Perpetration Scale (CBPS; Lee et al., 2015). The results showed that low cognitive empathy, but not emotional empathy, was a significant predictor of both relational and cyber aggression. Social anxiety was a significant moderator of the relationship between low emotional empathy and the perpetration of relational aggression, in a way that this relationship was more significant for participants with high social anxiety. Also, higher relational aggression predicted higher cyber aggression perpetration