Children's self-reports about anger regulation: Direct and indirect links to social preference and aggression

We assessed the direct relations between three aspects of self-reported anger regulation and peer-rated social preference and aggression as well as the indirect relations between these constructs as mediated by observed anger expression. The three aspects of anger regulation were the generation of strategies for dissembling external anger expression, the generation of strategies for regulating the internal experience of anger, and use of display rules for anger. Participants were 274 2nd grade children, approximately 8 years old (135 girls and 139 boys). Children participated in two anger-arousing games. They were interviewed about the three aspects of anger regulation in these situations, and their anger expressions were coded. Although anger regulation was not directly related to social preference or aggression, it was indirectly related to both social preference and aggression through the mediating mechanism of nonverbal anger expression.