Intellectual functioning and aggression.

Abstract

In a 22-year study, data were collected on aggressiveness and intellectual functioning in more than 600 subjects, their parents, and their children. Both aggression and intellectual functioning are reasonably stable in a subject's lifetime and perpetuate themselves across generations and within marriage pairs. Aggression in childhood was shown to interfere with the development of intellectual functioning and to be predictive of poorer intellectual achievement as an adult. Early 1Q was related to early subject aggression but did not predict changes in aggression after age 8. On the other hand, differences between early IQ and intellectual achievement in middle adulthood were predictable from early aggressive behavior. A dual-process model was offered to explain the relation between intellectual functioning and aggressive behavior. We hypothesized that low intelligence makes the learning of aggressive responses more likely at an early age, and this aggressive behavior makes continued intellectual development more difficult.Aggression has been demonstrated to be a reasonably stable characteristic from childhood to middle adulthood (Eron, Huesmann, Dubow, Romanoff, & Yarmel, 1987; Huesmann, Eron, Lefkowitz, & Walder, 1984;Olweus, 1979). Furthermore, aggression is a characteristic that perpetuates itself within a family system. Aggressive people are more likely to marry aggressive spouses and raise aggressive children (Huesmann et ah, 1984). However, aggression cannot be considered in isolation from other developing behaviors and characteristics (Eron, 1982). In particular, one must consider the relation between aggression and intellectual functioning.A number of studies have revealed a relation between aggression and poor performance on standardized tests of intellectual ability (Burt, 1925;Caplan, 1965;Glueck & Glueck, 1950;Gordon, 1975;Merrill, 1947;Siebert, 1962). The level of intellectual functioning in delinquents generally falls within the lower half of the IQ distribution, with the average IQ of courtinvolved delinquents 10-12 points below the mean IQ of nondelinquents. This relation, however, may be somewhat inflated because bright delinquents may not be apprehended as often as delinquents of lower intellectual functioning. When the genders are examined separately, one usually finds the same degree of relation between intellectual functioning and delinquency in boys and girls (Jensen, 1980), though boys are much more aggressive on the average.Although socioeconomic factors affect both intellectual abilities and aggressiveness in a child, it has been shown that, indeThe research described here was supported by Grant MH-34410 to Leonard D. Eron and MH-38683 to L. Rowell Huesmann from the National Institute of Mental Health.This article is based on a presentation in the symposium "Consistency of Aggression and Its Correlates over Twenty Years" at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Anaheim, California, in August, 1983. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed...

Teacher-student support, effortful engagement, and achievement: A 3-year longitudinal study.

“…Longitudinal investigations have documented that high levels of antisocial engagement (or low levels of prosocial behavior) predict declining academic performance (Feldhusen, Thurston, & Benning, 1970;Huesmann, Eron, & Yarmel, 1987;Miles & Stipek, 2006;National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network, 2004;Trzesniewski et al, 2006;Wentzel, 1991). Conversely, high levels of effortful engagement predict improving academic performance (Alexander et al, 1993;Greenwood, 1991;Skinner et al, 1998).…”

Facial Width-to-Height Ratio Does Not Predict Self-Reported Behavioral Tendencies

“…Many of these traits have previously been shown to strongly predict the same behavioral tendencies as fWHR. Intelligence, for example, has been shown to be inversely linked with aggression (Giancola & Zeichner, 1994;Huesmann, Eron, & Yarmel, 1987) and cooperativeness (Jones, 2008). Both impulsiveness and sensational interests have been linked with aggression, violent tendencies, and criminal behavior (Egan & Campbell, 2009;Stanford et al, 2009).…”

The Role of Violent Media Preference in Cumulative Developmental Risk for Violence and General Aggression

“…The risk factors for aggressive behavior in childhood and adolescence are legion and include, among others: exposure to violence and aggression in the community (i.e., witnessing or being victimized by aggressive acts; Guerra et al 2003;Schwartz and Proctor 2000), in the family (e.g., viewing spousal abuse or receiving harsh physical discipline; Boxer et al (in press);McCloskey et al 1995), and in schools and peer groups (e.g., victimization by physically or relationally aggressive acts, membership in antisocial peer groups; Boxer et al 2003;Espelage et al 2003). Additional identified risk factors include academic difficulties (e.g., low intelligence, poor achievement, learning disability; Huesmann et al 1987;Stipek 1998); psychopathic tendencies or callousness-unemotionality (e.g., shallow affect, lack of concern for others; Frick et al 2003); and psychopathology or related emotional problems (e.g., depression, psychotic symptoms; Boxer 2007; Knox et al 2000). This is not an exhaustive list of risk factors for aggression, but these are some of the key influences often implicated in models of aggression development (Dodge and Pettit 2003;Frick and Morris 2004;Guerra and Huesmann 2004) and highlighted in recommendations for the general assessment and treatment of aggression and antisocial behavior as well as risk for violence (Borum and Verhaagen 2006;Boxer and Frick 2008;Hoge et al 2008).…”