Effects of Fathers' Absence and Birth Order on Aggressive Behavior of Young Male Children

Abstract

Aggression scores were obtained for 50 inner-city Hispanic males. An analysis of variance indicated a statistically significant interaction between birth order and number of parents in the household. Post hoc analysis indicated that last-born subjects reared in low-income families with fathers absent displayed more aggressive behavior than firstborn, middle-born, or last-born subjects in families with fathers present. Moreover, there was an indication that firstborn and middle-born subjects in families with fathers absent may be more aggressive than their counterparts in families with fathers present. These results suggest that birth order should be considered in studies of the behavior and personality development of males in father-absent families. Research designs should differentiate between last-born and middle-born siblings.

Demographic factors affecting assertive and defensive behavior in preschool children: An ethological study

“…Hetherington's [ 19661 sample of 9-12-year-old lower-class boys did not reveal a white-black difference in aggressiveness, although black boys showed a preference for sports with physical contact; this result would be consistent with the current study if one interpreted most of the behavior with aggressive characteristics in the current study as actually being rough play. With respect to number of parents in the home, previous studies have suggested a tendency for (at least) boys from single-parent homes to be more aggressive [Smith and Connolly, 1972;Boone, 1979;Hetherington et al, 19793, which is consistent with the overall trend for assertive behavior observed in the current study. The pattern of increased assertiveness with increasing age observed in the current study is consistent with the results of some previous observational studies [Blurton Jones, 1972;Hartup, 19741, although other studies [eg, Blurton Jones and Konner, 1973;Smith and Connolly, 19721 did not find a significant effect for age.…”

“…Each dependent variable was regressed on the following set of independent variables representing demographic factors: (1) age, (2) [Hollingshead, 19571 was utilized; this scale can be summarized as follows: 0: unemployed, 1: unskilled manual laborers, 2: semiskilled manual, 3: skilled manual, 4: clericalhales, 5 : administrativehinor professionals/smdl business owners, 6: managershiddie professionalshedium business owners, 7: executiveshajor professionals/large business owners. All terms in the model were first order only (ie, linear), except fqr birth order, which had a first order and a quadratic term, to allow for the possibility that first and last born would be more similar than each to middle born [Boone, 1979;Deutsch, 19811. The method of regression analysis was stepwise with backward elimination.…”

“…How accurately teacher's ratings estimated actual behavior was not determined. In some cases, aggressive behavior was measured indirectly, eg, from fantasy play [Sears et al, 19461, or elicited experimentally in structured games [Boone, 1979;Montare and Boone, 19801. Even when naturalistic observations were conducted, scoring categories recorded only gross differences among behaviors [Hetherington et al, 19791.…”