Juvenile Justice Research

1. American Psychological Association style citation:

Fancher, C., Gambetti, E., & Giusberti, F. (2009). Trait anger and anger expression style in children’s risky decisions. Aggressive Behavior, 35(1), 14–23. https://doi-org.libdb.dc.edu/10.1002/ab.20285

2. Purpose and Prior Findings:

The purpose of the article was to show that trait anger could predict children’s risky decisions, and it is possible that the anger expression style might be connected to risk decision making in childhood. Also the researchers sought to evaluate the mediation effects of the evaluation of danger and benefit attributed to a risky situation and the degree of scare and fun experienced at the time of making a risky decision. Researchers expected that trait anger stimulates a low perception of danger and a high perception of benefit of risky choices. lastly researchers expected that children prone to feeling anger perceive low fear and high fun as regards to risky choices.

3. Hypothesis/Research Question:

The perceptions of low danger and low scare give rise to riskier decisions, as well as the perceptions of high benefit and high fun.

4. Method:

The authors got permission from the headmaster so they can have permission forms sent home to parents of school children to obtain consent for their children to participate in the study. Children also provided consent at school prior to participation. Participants were recruited from two elementary schools in Bologna, Italy. The sample comprised 104 children, including 43 boys and 61 girls, ranging from 8 to 10 years old. All children were in regular classrooms and, according to the teachers, were fluent in Italian and had never been hospitalized for an injury.

5. Results:

The data shows that trait anger and anger expression style is strongly interact. The people who tend to react with anger across time and situations are also inclined to express their angry feelings. The suppositional tendency to experience and express their angry feelings, which may be defined suppositional anger, is highly associated with risk decision making during their childhood. Prior research with adults has reported related findings, that the chronic tendency to experience anger is related to optimistic beliefs about experiencing future life events and optimistic perceptions of risk. Previous studies have also highlighted that state anger makes people aimlessly optimistic about their own changes of success.

6. Discussion/Conclusions:

The researchers findings suggest a possible explanation of the relationship between suppositional anger and risk decision making. The goal of this study was to investigate negotiation effects of the appraisals of danger and benefit attributed to a risky situation and the degree of scare and fun experienced at the time of making a risky decision. Evaluation of benefit, danger, scare and fun are found to mediate the relationship between trait anger and risk taking.

7. Critical Review:

This article relates to the podcast Caught because it discusses the approach juveniles take on a situation. “they look at me like a menace” where “z” made came upon a decision to go with a group of friends to rob a store with a firearm. “z” may have looked at this as a risky but yet fun decision because he is a kid and doesn’t understand the circumstances that would take place after going through with this.