Social problem solving and strategy use in young children

In the present study, the authors investigated what prosocial-assertive, passive, and coercive strategies 6-year-olds (N=257) would propose in response to stories about 2 socially challenging situations: displacing another child in a game and obtaining a toy from another child. The scenarios also varied the gender composition of the characters. Participants' verbalizations while acting out their responses using toy props fell into 13 categories of strategies. Teachers reported antisocial behavior and social competence of the participants. Girls and boys responded similarly in their general suggestions of prosocial or assertive strategies, but girls were more likely to offer prosocial strategies with other girls than with boys. Teacher-rated competence and antisocial behavior interacted in predicting coercive responses by girls but not by boys. The results demonstrate that prosocial and antisocial behaviors need to be considered in interaction to fully understand the nature of social competence.     

The Psychology of the Child at Geneva and the J. J. Rousseau Institute

In the present study, the authors investigated what prosocial-assertive, passive, and coercive strategies 6-year-olds (N = 257) would propose in response to stories about 2 socially challenging situations: displacing another child in a game and obtaining a toy from another child. The scenarios also varied the gender composition of the characters. Participants' verbalizations while acting out their responses using toy props fell into 13 categories of strategies. Teachers reported antisocial behavior and social competence of the participants. Girls and boys responded similarly in their general suggestions of prosocial or assertive strategies, but girls were more likely to offer prosocial strategies with other girls than with boys. Teacher-rated competence and antisocial behavior interacted in predicting coercive responses by girls but not by boys. The results demonstrate that prosocial and antisocial behaviors need to be considered in interaction to fully understand the nature of social competence.     

The Relation of Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior to Personality and Peer Relationships of Hong Kong Chinese Adolescents

The prosocial and antisocial behaviors of 2,862 Hong Kong Chinese adolescents were investigated. The major findings were as follows: (a) boys were more antisocial than girls; (b) negative peer influences were significantly stronger in boys than in girls, whereas positive peer influences were significantly stronger in girls than in boys; (c) antisocial adolescents tended to perceive their best friend as antisocial and exerting more negative influences on them, whereas prosocial adolescents tended to perceive their best friend as prosocial and exerting more positive influences on them; (d) antisocial behavior was positively associated with psychoticism and neuroticism; and (e) academic achievement tended to have a positive relation with prosocial behavior and a negative relation with antisocial behavior.     

The utility of differentiating between mixed and pure forms of antisocial child behavior

This study examined the utility of classifying boys on the basis of a typology of antisocial behavior. A group of 195 boys, aged 10–17, was divided into four mutually exclusive groups based on their pattern of antisocial behavior. Stealing and fighting were chosen as criteria to define the four groups: (a) boys who fought but did not steal (Exclusive Fighter Group), (b) boys who stole but did not fight (Exclusive Theft Group), (c) boys who stole and fought (Versatile Antisocial Group), and (d) boys who did neither (Remaining Group). A multimethod-multirespondent study of these boys showed that (a) the Exclusive Fighter Group tended to score high on a range of overt antisocial behaviors and were relatively little involved in delinquency; (b) the Exclusive Theft Group tended to score high on some overt antisocial behaviors and were much involved in delinquency; (c) Versatile Antisocial youths scored highest among all groups on almost all overt and covert antisocial behaviors, and in terms of delinquent acts. The Versatile boys came from families with the most disturbed child-earing practices.The authors are indebted to Gerald Patterson for his inspiration and encouragement through-out the study. They acknowledge the most helpful comments they have received during earlier drafts of this paper from Drs. John Reid, Magda Stouthamer-Loeber, and Mark Weinrott.The paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Denver, Colorado, November 10, 1983. The study has been funded by the Center for Studies in Crime and Delinquency, National Institute of Mental Health, Grants MH 32857 and MH 37940.     

The relation of gender-role classifications to the prosocial and antisocial behavior of Chinese adolescents

The author investigated the relation between gender-role classifications and prosocial and antisocial behavior for 505 Chinese adolescents in grades 7 to 12. The author found that (a) boys were more antisocial than girls were, (b) there was no significant gender difference in prosocial behavior, (c) prosocial behavior was associated positively with both masculinity and femininity, (d) delinquent behavior was associated positively with masculinity, (e) gender-role classification that was consistent with one's biological gender (e.g., femininity in girls) was more salient in predicting one's prosocial behavior than was a gender-role classification that was not consistent with one's gender (e.g., femininity in boys), (f) delinquent behavior in the feminine group was significantly lower than it was in the other 3 gender-role groups (masculine, androgynous, undifferentiated), and (g) adolescents in the undifferentiated group tended to be less prosocial and fairly antisocial, and their social behavioral pattern was the least favorable among the four gender-role classifications.     

Gender Differences in Predicting Antisocial Behaviors: Developmental Consequences of Physical and Relational Aggression

This study investigated gender differences in the relationship of early physical and relational aggression to later peer rejection and overt and covert antisocial behaviors. Significant gender differences were found indicating physically aggressive boys were more likely than girls to experience later peer rejection. Early physical aggression was related to later overt antisocial behavior for boys and girls, and more strongly for girls than for boys. Early relational aggression was not associated with later forms of antisocial behavior. In the context of early physical aggression, for boys and girls peer rejection generally served to increment risk for later overt and covert antisocial behavior in an additive fashion. The data suggest some gender specificity in the social risk processes associated with the development of early overt and covert antisocial behaviors.     

Development of social problem solving in early childhood: stability,change, and associations with social competence

Kindergarten and 1st-grade boys were administered social cognitive interviews in 2 consecutive years to investigate the response-generation step of N. R. Crick and K. A. Dodge's (1994) social information processing model. Boys generated responses to 4 types of hypothetical social dilemmas. Responses to these situations were primarily prosocial, with a large minority of avoidant and antisocial solutions. In general, older boys provided more effective solutions than did their younger peers, and stabilities were modest but significant for subcategories of both prosocial and antisocial responses. Boys who were accepted by their peers provided more prosocial and effective solutions than did boys of lower peer status, but no status differences emerged for antisocial responses. The data also suggest that young children view aggression as an acceptable means to solving peer conflict.     

Development of Social Problem Solving in Early Childhood: Stability,Change, and Associations With Social Competence

Kindergarten and 1st-grade boys were administered social cognitive interviews in 2 consecutive years to investigate the response-generation step of N. R. Crick and K. A. Dodge's (1994) social information processing model. Boys generated responses to 4 types of hypothetical social dilemmas. Responses to these situations were primarily prosocial, with a large minority of avoidant and antisocial solutions. In general, older boys provided more effective solutions than did their younger peers, and stabilities were modest but significant for subcategories of both prosocial and antisocial responses. Boys who were accepted by their peers provided more prosocial and effective solutions than did boys of lower peer status, but no status differences emerged for antisocial responses. The data also suggest that young children view aggression as an acceptable means to solving peer conflict.     

Self-concept and perception of early mother and father behavior in normal and antisocial adolescents

This study examines the self-concept and perceptions of early parental behavior in a group of 277 normal adolescents with respect to differences in age (12-18 years) and gender. A group of 30 antisocial adolescents of similar age (13-19 years) were included as a comparison group. The study was a cross-sectional questionnaire study and the Swedish translation of the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) introject and mother/father questionnaires were used as measures of self- and parental concepts. Multivariate analyses of variance show that the normal adolescent self-concept and perception of early parental behavior are positive and that there are no age or gender differences. The early behavior of the mother is perceived more positively than that of the father. A positive self-concept is related to a positive perception of the parent's early behavior. The antisocial group of adolescents shows a more autonomous and negative self-concept and more negative perception of early parental behaviors. This was true especially in the group of antisocial girls. The conclusion from the study is that there is no evidence of a chaotic self-concept or tumultuous changes in the perceptions of early parental behavior during normal adolescence, but that an antisocial way of life might be reflected in a more negative and autonomous self-concept and in more negative perceptions of early parental behavior during adolescence.     

Social problem-solving skills in boys with conduct and oppositional defiant disorders

The current study compared the social problem-solving skills of a clinic-based sample of 30 boys diagnosed with conduct disorder (CD) and 25 boys diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Past research has indicated that contextual factors influence children's social problem-solving; thus, three hypothetical conflict situations (i.e., child-child, teacher-child, and parent-child) and situations which differed by degree of negative intent of the provocateur (i.e., hostile vs. Ambiguous intent) were examined. Problem-solving strategies were aggregated into three broad dimensions: 1) aggressive/antisocial solutions; 2) nonverbal-nonaggressive solutions; and 3) verbal-nonaggressive solutions. Compared to ODD boys, CD boys proposed more aggressive/antisocial solutions in parent-child conflicts when parental intent was ambiguous and in teacher-child conflicts regardless of intent. Compared to ODD boys, CD boys proposed fewer verbal-nonaggressive solutions in child-child conflicts. The implications of these findings for treatment intervention with CD and ODD boys were discussed. Aggr. Behav. 23:457–469, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Boys Who Join Gangs: A Prospective Study of Predictors of First Gang Entry

In a representative sample of boys who were in the 7th grade of an urban public school system at the start of a 6-year longitudinal study, more African American boys (23.8%) than non-Hispanic White boys (3.9%) had entered an antisocial gang by age 19. There were too few White gang members to study, but among African American boys, first gang entry was predicted prospectively by both baseline conduct disorder (CD) behaviors and increasing levels of CD behaviors prior to gang entry. This suggests that gang entry may be a further developmental step for some boys who are already on a trajectory of worsening antisocial behavior. Having friends prior to gang entry who engaged in aggressive delinquency increased the risk of gang entry further, but only during early adolescence. Family income and parental supervision also independently predicted gang entry, but the direction of their influences depended on the youth's age.     

Young adult outcome of children with "situational" hyperactivity: a prospective,controlled follow-up study

To examine the importance of symptom pervasiveness in ADHD, we conducted a prospective, 12-year follow-up study of boys (ages 6–12) considered hyperactive at school and home (Pervasive ADHD), boys considered hyperactive by teachers but not parents (School Only ADHD), boys considered hyperactive by parents but not teachers (Home Only ADHD), and nonhyperactive comparisons. Follow-up was completed on 82–94% participants. Clinicians interviewed participants and their parents, blind to childhood status. At follow-up, antisocial disorder was significantly more prevalent among Pervasive and School Only ADHD (29% for both) than Home Only ADHD (0%) and comparisons (8%). In a similar manner, severity of behavioral problems distinguished groups (Pervasive, School > Home, comparisons), as did educational attainment and academic performance (poorest for Pervasive and School). These findings stress the validity of teacher reports in the diagnosis of ADHD.     

The Development of Physical Aggression from Toddlerhood to Pre-Adolescence: A Nation Wide Longitudinal Study of Canadian Children

The objectives of the study were to model the developmental trajectories of physical aggression (PA) from toddlerhood to pre-adolescence and to identify risk factors that distinguish typical (normative) from atypical developmental patterns. Ten cohorts of approximately 1,000 children (n = 10,658) drawn form a nationally representative (Canadian) sample were followed over 6 years. Using a group based trajectory approach, we identified three groups of children with distinct developmental trajectories between 2 and 11 years of age. One third of the children (31.1%) followed a low desisting trajectory, reflected in infrequent use of PA in toddlerhood and virtually no PA by pre-adolescence. The majority of children (52.2%) followed a moderate desisting trajectory, reflected in occasional use of PA in toddlerhood and infrequent use by pre-adolescence. One sixth of the children (16.6%) followed a high stable trajectory of PA. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that children in the high PA trajectory group were more likely to be boys (OR: 1.67; CI: 1.5–1.87), from low income families (OR: 1.4; CI; 1.27–1.67), from families where the mother had not completed high school (OR: 1.20; CI: 1.05–1.38) and who reported using hostile/ineffective parenting strategies (OR: 1.16; CI: 1.14–1.18). In sum, the results indicate that the typical developmental pattern of PA was one of occasional and declining use over time. However, about one sixth of children, mostly boys from disadvantaged families, exhibited an atypical developmental pattern reflected in more frequent and stable use of PA. The results suggest that most children learned relatively well to inhibit PA by the end of childhood and that a minority failed to do so. Family risks traditionally found to be associated with antisocial behaviors during adolescence appear to interfere with the socialization of PA during early and middle childhood.     

Social perspective-taking and adjustment in emotionally disturbed,learning-disabled,and normal children

Preadolescent emotionally disturbed, learning-disabled, and normal boys were compared on social perspective-taking and behavioral measures to examine possible contributions of social cognitive deficits to children's adjustment problems. Antisocial-prosocial and withdrawn-gregarious behavior dimensions were studied through subscales derived from teacher ratings. Results indicated that across all groups, high perspective-taking was associated with significantly less withdrawal than was low perspective-taking; within groups, this finding was significant only for the emotionally disturbed boys. Contrary to theoretical assumptions, antisocial behavior was not significantly related to perspective-taking across the sample. Among emotionally disturbed boys, relatively higher affective perspectivetaking was significantly correlated with higher antisocial behavior. This positive correlation for the emotionally disturbed group was significantly different from the nonsignificant negative correlation between antisocial behavior and perspective-taking among normals. Findings for learning-disabled boys were intermediate. between results for emotionally disturbed and normal boys on both perspectivetaking and behavioral measures, and the learning-disabled group generally did not differ significantly from either other group. Theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed The authors acknowledge the invaluable assistance and cooperation of many teachers and principals in Jefferson County School District in Colorado, especially Ms. Norma Sobesky, coordinator of the program for Significantly Impaired Emotionally and Behaviorally Disturbed Children, and Ms. Beth Young, coordinator of the program for Perceptual and Communicative Disorders.     

Aggressive and nonaggressive antisocial behavior in adolescence

This study examined whether a distinction between aggressive and nonaggressive antisocial behavior can be empirically verified in a large (254 girls and 254 boys) nonclinical (community) sample of Dutch adolescents between 12 and 18 years old. The results of confirmatory factor analysis for both boys and girls shows that aggressive and nonaggressive antisocial behaviors do not represent a single underlying dimension, but two separate constructs with moderate independence among them. These findings suggest that the conceptualization of adolescent antisocial behavior as a one-dimensional phenomenon is of questionable utility and supports growing evidence that aggressive antisocial behavior is distinct from other forms of antisocial behavior.     

Disruptive boys with stable and unstable high fighting behavior patterns during junior elementary school

Boys' fighting was assessed at ages six, eight, and nine. The boys (N = 69) had been selected from the 30% most disruptive children in kindergartens from low socioeconomic neighborhoods. Twenty-three percent of these disruptive boys were rated as high fighters on three assessments ("stable high fighters"), and 28% were rated as high fighters on two of the three assessments ("variable high fighters"). Forty-two percent were rated as high fighters only one out of three assessments ("occasional high fighters") and 7% were never rated as high fighters. Only high fighting in two successive years significantly increased the risk of being rated a high fighter in a following year. At age 10, stable high fighters (high fighters at ages 6, 8, 9) were perceived by teachers, peers, mothers, and the boys themselves as more disruptive and more antisocial than occasional high fighters. These results show an impressive self-other agreement in boys who have adopted a physically aggressive life style from an early age. The three groups did not differ on individual family demographic characteristics, but stable high fighters had a higher mean on an index of family socioeconomic disadvantage. Results indicate that the aggression scales which include only a few physical aggression items and many disruptive items (oppositional behavior, rejection, hyperactivity, inattention, etc.) probably aggregate two kinds of disruptive boys, the high-frequency fighters at high risk for stable disruptive, physically aggressive, and antisocial behaviors, and the disruptive low-frequency fighters who are at a lower risk of stable disruptive behavior and at a lower risk of early antisocial behavior.     

Antisocial behavior reduces the association between subdimensions of ADHD symptoms and alcohol use in a large population‐based sample of adolescents

The aim of this study was to investigate possible effects of antisocial behavior on reducing the association between subdimensions of ADHD symptoms (inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity) and alcohol use. Boys and girls were analyzed separately using a population‐based Swedish adolescent sample. A randomly selected cross‐sectional survey was performed in secondary and upper secondary schools in Västmanland County during 2010. Participants were a population of 2,439 15–16 year‐olds and 1,425 17–18 year‐olds (1,947 girls and 1,917 boys). Psychosocial adversity, antisocial behaviors, symptoms of ADHD and alcohol use were assessed by questionnaires. Except for girls' inattention, subdimensions of ADHD symptoms were not associated with alcohol use when variance due to antisocial behavior was accounted for. Among boys, instead of an indirect effect of antisocial behavior on the association between impulsivity and alcohol use, a moderating effect was found. Among girls, the inattention component of ADHD was independently associated with alcohol use even when adjusted for antisocial behavior. The reduced associations between symptoms of hyperactivity, impulsivity, and alcohol use for boys and girls after adjusting for antisocial behavior suggest a considerable overlap between hyperactivity, impulsivity, and antisocial behavior. The direct pathway between inattention and alcohol use among girls suggests that girls with inattention symptoms are at risk of alcohol use regardless of antisocial behavior. Special attention should be given to these girls. Accounting for antisocial behavior reduced the relation between subdimensions of ADHD symptoms and alcohol use, and antisocial behaviors should therefore be screened for when symptoms of ADHD are present.     

Trajectories of Youthful Antisocial Behavior: Categories or Continua?

The purpose of this study was to determine whether qualitatively distinct trajectories of antisocial behavior could be identified in 1,708 children (843 boys, 865 girls) from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth–Child Data (NLSY-C). Repeated ratings were made on the Behavior Problems Index (BPI: Peterson and Zill Journal of Marriage and the Family, 48, 295–307, 1986) antisocial scale by the mothers of these children when the children were 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 years of age. Scores on three indicators constructed from the six BPI Antisocial items (callousness, aggression, noncompliance) were then analyzed longitudinally (by summing across the rating periods) and cross-sectionally (by testing each individual rating period) in the full sample as well as in subsamples of boys and girls. Results obtained with the mean above minus below a cut (MAMBAC), maximum covariance (MAXCOV), and latent mode factor analysis (L-Mode) taxometric procedures revealed consistent evidence of continuous latent structure despite the fact Growth Mixture Modeling (GMM) and Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA) identified between two and eight trajectories, depending on the stopping rule, in the three antisocial indicators. From these results, it is concluded that the structural model underlying these data is better represented as continuous rather than as categorical. The implications of these results for future research on developmental trajectories of antisocial behavior are discussed.     

Psychosocial predictors of adult antisocial personality and adult convictions

In the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, 411 South London males have been followed up since age 8. This article investigates the ability of psychosocial risk factors measured at age 8 - 10 to predict antisocial personality measures at ages 18 and 32 and convictions between ages 21 and 40. The most important childhood predictors were a convicted parent, large family size, low intelligence or attainment, and child-rearing factors, including a young mother and a disrupted family. The accuracy of prediction of antisocial personality at age 32 on the basis of childhood risk factors measured more than 20 years before was surprising: nearly half of boys with a convicted parent at age 10 were antisocial at age 32, compared with one in six of the remainder. Over 60% of boys very high risk at age 8 - 10 became antisocial at age 32. While the present research shows how far adult antisocial and criminal behavior can be predicted in childhood, more research is needed to establish the precise causal mechanisms involved.     

Genetic influences on the overlap between low IQ and antisocial behavior in young children

The well-documented relation between the phenotypes of low IQ and childhood antisocial behavior could be explained by either common genetic influences or environmental influences. These competing explanations were examined through use of the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study 1994-1995 cohort (Moffitt & the E-Risk Study Team, 2002) of 1,116 twin pairs and their families. Children's IQ was assessed via individual testing at age 5 years. Mothers and teachers reported on children's antisocial behavior at ages 5 and 7 years. Low IQ was related to antisocial behavior at age 5 years and predicted relatively higher antisocial behavior scores at age 7 years when antisocial behavior at age 5 years was controlled. This association was significantly stronger among boys than among girls. Genetic influences common to both phenotypes explained 100% of the low IQ-antisocial behavior relation in boys. Findings suggest that specific candidate genes and neurobiological processes should be tested in relation to both phenotypes.