Correlations of Aggression and Empathy Among Female Juveniles

Presenter's Name(s)

Sierra E. SabecFollow

Conference Year

January 2022

Abstract

Arrests for violent behavior have declined in recent decades, however, aggravated assault is increasing in females and remains a public health challenge. Our study builds upon previous work by our lab which found that females in the juvenile justice system have equal or greater rates of aggression, and greater empathy compared to males. We hypothesize that higher empathy is associated with lower aggression, and levels of empathy differ depending on the type of aggression, in females. Participants were 150 adolescents (40% female), detained as juveniles. Measures include the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Youth Self-Report and Teacher Report forms.

Primary Faculty Mentor Name

Timothy Stickle

Graduate Student Mentors

Nathaniel Moxley-Kelly

Status

Undergraduate

Student College

College of Arts and Sciences

Second Student College

Patrick Leahy Honors College

Program/Major

Psychological Science

Second Program/Major

Anthropology

Primary Research Category

Social Sciences

Abstract only.

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Correlations of Aggression and Empathy Among Female Juveniles

Arrests for violent behavior have declined in recent decades, however, aggravated assault is increasing in females and remains a public health challenge. Our study builds upon previous work by our lab which found that females in the juvenile justice system have equal or greater rates of aggression, and greater empathy compared to males. We hypothesize that higher empathy is associated with lower aggression, and levels of empathy differ depending on the type of aggression, in females. Participants were 150 adolescents (40% female), detained as juveniles. Measures include the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Youth Self-Report and Teacher Report forms.