Understanding the Roots: The Role of Self-Awareness in Managing Adolescent Aggression a Comprehensive Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

Adolescent aggression remains a critical public-health concern, contributing to school failure, peer rejection, legal entanglement, and long-term psychopathology. Although numerous risk factors have been identified, the internal “software” that allows youth to monitor, interpret, and regulate their aggressive impulses self-awareness has received comparatively scant empirical attention. The present paper synthesizes findings from developmental psychology, affective neuroscience, and mindfulness-based intervention research to argue that self-awareness constitutes a malleable, trans-diagnostic mechanism capable of attenuating aggressive behaviour. After reviewing definitional and measurement issues, we examine evidence that (a) normative adolescent neurocognitive changes create windows of both vulnerability and opportunity for self-awareness growth, (b) deficits in interceptive and mentalizing self-awareness predict reactive and proactive aggression, and (c) school- and clinic-based programs that explicitly target self-awareness yield medium-to-large reductions in aggressive outcomes. We close by outlining methodological gaps and proposing a multi-level research agenda integrating ecological momentary assessment, neurofeedback, and youth-adult partnership designs.