Indirect aggression and parental attachment in early adolescence: Examining the role of perspective taking and empathetic concern

• We examine the associations between empathy, attachment and indirect aggression.
• Parental attachment is negatively associated with indirect aggression.
• Two components of empathy act differently in predicting indirect aggression.
• Two components of empathy are interacted in predicting boys' indirect aggression.

This study examined the unique and interactive roles of parental attachment and empathy in indirect aggression during early adolescence. A sample of 6301 early adolescents (49.2% boys and 50.8% girls) in urban China, aged from 11 to 14 years, completed self-administrated measures of parent-adolescent attachment, empathy, and indirect aggression. Results indicated that perspective taking was negatively associated with indirect aggression, and empathetic concern was not related to indirect aggression. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that perspective taking moderated the association between empathetic concern and boys' indirect aggression. The findings highlighted that empathetic concern might not be a sufficient protective factor of indirect aggression for boys with low levels of perspective taking during early adolescence.

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