Children with aggressive behavior problems may aggress for different reasons, requiring tailored assessment and treatment. The aim of this study was to test whether it is possible to detect distinct social information processing (SIP) profiles among boys with aggressive behavior problems. We therefore conducted Latent Profile Analyses on boys’ SIP patterns assessed in interactive virtual reality. Additionally, we examined the discriminant validity of these SIP profiles by comparing them on theoretically relevant child characteristics (i.e., temperament, executive functioning, aggressive belief systems, punishment insensitivity, sensation seeking). We presented boys (N = 181; ages 7–13) with a virtual classroom where they could play games with virtual peers. They reported on their SIP in four virtual reality scenarios, designed to assess reactive and proactive aggressive SIP. Results revealed four distinct SIP profiles: a general reactive SIP profile, a situation-specific reactive SIP profile, a mixed reactive-proactive SIP profile, and a nonaggressive SIP profile. Planned contrasts revealed that boys with these SIP profiles differed in temperament, aggressive belief systems, and punishment insensitivity, but not in executive functioning and sensation seeking. Overall, findings suggest that boys differ in the exact SIP patterns underlying their aggressive behavior, providing inroads to tailor interventions to children’s individual needs.

The present study investigated the differences in patterns of social information processing (SIP) among adolescents with two trajectories of offending: group 1 (G1) composed of adolescents with a trajectory of major persistent offenses, which includes illegal acts considered violent; group 2 (G2) composed of individuals with a trajectory of minor persistent offenses, in which there is no escalation of the gravity of the offenses; and a comparison group (G3) with adolescents without involvement in offenses. SIP is one of the theoretical models most widely evoked to study and explain violent behavior in children/adolescents, in regarding the psychological processes that underlie behavior, specifically the cognitive nature. The participants answered a self-report delinquency interview and a SIP measure protocol. The results showed differences between the groups of offenders (G1 and G2) and the comparison group (G3) on the SIP pattern related to the competent responses. G1 and G2 revealed a SIP pattern poorly associated with socially competent behavior. However, G1 presented an SIP pattern more associated with the emission of aggressive behaviors. This pattern, although also present in G2, is more evident for those adolescents who reported committing crimes with the use of violence against people.

Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) develop when unborn children are exposed to alcohol prenatally. As a result of this exposure, children with FASD exhibit a range of social, behavioural, cognitive and even physical deficits that can impede their life-long development. These deficits can be influenced by maltreatment and the instability resulting from being placed into out-of-home care, and/or multiple foster-care placement breakdowns. The aim of this article is to increase awareness amongst child welfare professionals of how prenatal alcohol exposure impacts on children's social development. Social deficits include problems with social cognition and social information processing, which result in issues in social problem solving, processing social cues, social judgement, and developing and maintaining relationships. These deficits leave children with a FASD vulnerable to victimisation, exploitation, peer pressure and, as a result, interaction with the criminal justice system. Deficits are life-long and become more pronounced with age, although early detection and intervention appears to improve social skills deficits. Such interventions need to be explored further as they could potentially mitigate some of these deficits by capitalising on the neuroplasticity of a child's developing brain and pave a more positive trajectory for these children's future.

The aim of this research is to examine the relationship between social intelligence and loneliness of academics in the workplace. This study involves 326 (149 female/177 male) academics employed in various universities in Turkey and North Cyprus. The age average of participants is 39.09 years. In this study, the Loneliness at Work Scale (LAWS) and Tromso Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS) have been utilized. The data were analyzed using multiple regression and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient analysis techniques. The findings showed that social information processing, social skills, and social awareness, which are the sub-dimensions of social intelligence, positively explained 26% of social deprivation. Social skills and social awareness positively explained 13% of social companionship. The findings also showed that the social information processing sub-dimension did not meaningfully explain social companionship.

This study assesses the association between cognitive schemas of justification of violence, grandiosity and abuse, and reactive and proactive aggressive behavior, and whether this association is mediated by social information processing (SIP). For this purpose, a sample of 1371 adolescents (638 girls and 580 boys) completed measures of cognitive schemas, SIP, and Reactive-Proactive Aggression. The results showed that the cognitive schemas of justification of violence and narcissism are more relevant for proactive aggression, whereas the abuse schema is more relevant for reactive aggression. SIP mediated particularly the association between cognitive schemas and reactive aggression. Each cognitive schema was shown to be associated with some particular SIP component: justification of violence and abuse with the component of interpretation, and narcissism with the experience of anger. Moreover, the abuse schema was negatively associated with the selection of aggressive responses. Lastly, a general model of paths between schemas, SIP, and aggression was found to be quite similar for boys and girls, although the former scored higher in proactive aggression, partly because of their higher scores in the justification of violence and narcissism schemas.