The effect of social exclusion on aggressive behavior among Chinese college students: the mediating role of relative deprivation and the moderating role of upward social comparison.

Résumé

BACKGROUND: The current study examined the effect of social exclusion on aggressive behavior, how relative deprivation might mediate this effect, and how upward social comparison (USC) might moderate the indirect pathway.METHODS: One thousand seven hundred and sixty-six college students were investigated, with an average age of 19.53 (SD = 1.09) years. Participants completed questionnaires regarding social exclusion, aggressive behavior, relative deprivation, and USC. The data was analyzed using regression-based moderated mediation modeling. PROCESS Models 4 and 7 macros for SPSS were used to test the mediation and moderated mediation models with 5,000 random sample bootstrapping confidence intervals (CIs).RESULTS: The findings revealed a significant positive association between social exclusion and aggressive behavior among Chinese college students ( = 0.362,