Emotion dysregulation was next examined as a mediator of the longitudinal relationship between stressful life events and aggressive behavior. Time 1 stressful life events were associated with Time 3 aggressive behavior, controlling for aggressive behavior at Time 1, β=0.08, p=0.033, R2=.19. Model fit was as follows: χ2(26)=121.8, p<0.001, CFI=0.98, and RMSEA=0.05 (90% CI: 0.04–0.06). Time 1 stressful life events were associated with Time 2 emotion dysregulation, controlling for emotion dysregulation at Time 1, β=0.08, p=0.012, R2=.67. Model fit was as follows: χ2(26)=308.4, p<0.001, CFI=0.83, and RMSEA=0.09 (90% CI: 0.08–.10). As shown above, Time 2 emotion dysregulation was associated with Time 3 aggressive behavior, controlling for aggressive behavior at Time 1, β=.23, p<0.001, R2=.21. Model fit was as follows: χ2(52)=113.97, p<0.001, CFI=0.99, and RMSEA=0.03 (90% CI: 0.02–0.04).
