Aggression and Its Correlates over 22 Years

Abstract

It is apparent from the varied substance of the chapters in this book that aggression is an overdetermined behavior. There are genetic, constitutional, and environmental factors as well as individual learning history and specific situational events which go into determining whether a person will act in an aggressive manner at any specific time. However, the large number of possible determinants does not mean that aggressive behavior cannot be predicted or explained. Research that my colleagues and I have been doing indicates, in fact, that aggressive behavior is consistent over time and across situations despite the fact that a number of factors contribute to the behavior in varying degrees.In 1960, we completed a survey of all the third-grade school children in a semi-rural county in New York State. This included approximately 870 youngsters whose modal age at the time was 8 years. We also interviewed 80% of their mothers and fathers. The focus of our procedures was the aggressive behavior of the subjects as manifested in school. Our purpose was to delineate the learning conditions for aggression, and therefore we collected information about the presumed psychological and social antecedents and correlates of aggressive behavior. Most of the findings of this phase of the study have been published, and they indicate that many children learn to be more or less aggressive from interactions with the environment (Eron, Walder, & Lefkowitz, 1971).

Early Developmental Processes and the Continuity of Risk for Underage Drinking and Problem Drinking

“…In the past 20 years, an increasing amount of evidence from longitudinal studies has identified 2 such traits that are detectable very early in life, that predict alcohol (and to some degree other drug) involvement, and that seem to be markers of an underlying genetic diathesis for early use, heavy use, problem use, and AUD. This work, coming from 6 long-term prospective studies, [11][12][13][14][15] provides a remarkable convergence with the genetic literature in demonstrating that externalizing (aggressive, impulsive, and undercontrolled) and to a lesser degree internalizing (anxious, sad, and depressive) symptoms appearing in early childhood are predictive of SUD outcomes 15 to 20 years after the first appearance of the non-drug-specific behavioral risk (see ref 3 for a review of this work). Moreover, these traits are known to be relatively stable over the course of childhood and adolescence, 16,17 with the individuals showing the greatest continuity of problems also being the most likely to develop the more chronic and more severe forms of SUDs in adulthood.…”

The Developmental Behavior Genetics of Drug Involvement: Overview and Comments

“…Although less well known, the nongenetic evidence is even more compelling for a common causal factor cutting across drugs of abuse. This work, coming from six long term prospective studies (Caspi et al 1996(Caspi et al , 2002Eron et al 1987;Mayzer et al 2002Mayzer et al , 2003Masse and Tremblay 1997;Cloninger et al 1988) carried out over the past quarter century, provides a remarkable convergence with the genetic literature in demonstrating that externalizing symptomatology appearing in early childhood is predictive of SUD outcomes some 15-20 years after the first appearance of the drug-nonspecific behavioral risk (see Zucker 2006 for a review of this work). Moreover, these traits (a) are known to be relatively stable over the course of childhood and adolescence (Fuller et al 2003;Olweus, 1979); are most likely to show a continuity pattern among individuals who thereafter develop the more chronic and severe forms of SUD (Biglan et al 2004; Campbell et al 2000).…”

Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviors and experiences: A meta-analytic and theoretical review.

“…Furthermore, the continuity of children's behavioral tendencies across adulthood may account for associations with corporal punishment. Childhood aggression remains the best predictor of aggression in adulthood (Eron, Huesmann, Dubow, Romanoff, & Yarmel, 1987;Lefkowitz, Eron, Walder, & Huesmann, 1977); it may be that the third variable of childhood aggression predicts both parental corporal punishment and adult aggression, or it may be that corporal punishment predicts childhood aggression, which in turn persists as aggression in adulthood.…”