Predicting aggressive patterns in girls and boys: A developmental study

The aim of this multimethod, longitudinal study was to examine similarities and differences in aggressive expression and prediction among school-aged boys and girls. The primary research sample involved 174 children (93 females, 81 males). They were in the fourth grade at the beginning of the study, and the fifth grade at its conclusion. Embedded in the primary sample was a subgroup of 20 children identified as being highly aggressive (ten males, ten females), and a subgroup of 20 matched control children. The research measures included teachers' ratings of aggressive behavior, peer-nominations/reports of prior conflicts, individual interviews/self-ratings, and extensive behavioral observations. Analyses of the concurrent relations among measures pointed to a “public” cluster of measures (including peer-nominations, behaviors, and teacher ratings) and relatively “private” measures (ie, subjects' self-evaluations). In the primary sample, significant developmental trends were detected in the teacher ratings with increasing gender differentiation as children grew older. Few gender differences were observed in the high-aggressive subgroup, but the aggressive and the matched control groups differed on virtually all comparisons. Gender differences in predictability were a function of risk status, with high-aggressive girls showing as much stability as high-aggressive boys.     

School-based interventions for aggressive African-American boys

Four school-based interventions for aggressive African-American boys were reviewed. The interventions were respectively designed to (a) alter biased attributions to hostile intent, (b) develop more adaptive social problem solving skills, (c) enhance peer relations through pair therapy, and (d) improve self-esteem and academic achievement with instruction in all male classrooms. The strengths and limitations of each intervention were evaluated. The article concludes with recommendations for future intervention research with African-American boys labeled as aggressive.     

A behavioral observation method for differentiating hyperactive and aggressive boys

This study employed a playroom observation technique to examine the behavioral differences between hyperactive and aggressive boys. Subjects were clinic-referred boys assigned to Hyperactive, Aggressive, or Hyperactive plus Aggressive goups on the basis of behavior checklists and ratings of psychiatric chart information. While significant discrimination was obtained in all three settings (free play, restricted play, and restricted academic), behavioral differences among the subject groups were most pronounced during the restricted academic period. Discriminant function analysis for the restricted academic period resulted in accurate classification of 86% of the subjects as hyperactive, aggressive, or hyperactive plus aggressive. The present findings suggest that children with externalizing disorders can be distinguished in light of their observed clinic behavior in the restricted academic setting.This was conducted as part of the author's dissertation. The author wishes to express thanks to Jan Loney, Richard Milich, and Richard Roberts for their assistance in completion of this study and preparation of this article.     

Intervention for aggressive victims of school bullying in Hong Kong: a longitudinal mixed-methods study

The distinction between aggressive and passive victims of school bullying is well documented. Aggressive victims exhibit restlessness and hot-temperedness, are easily provoked, and take revenge when irritated, whereas passive victims are quiet and timid when attacked or insulted and withdraw rather than retaliate. To date, there has been no evidence-based evaluative study examining interventions designed specifically to reduce aggressive victimization, and neither has there been an inclusive assessment screening of high-risk aggressive victims prior to intervention. This study addressed these research gaps by employing multi-stage assessment procedures and a mixed-mode methodology in a one-year longitudinal design. Data were collected from student self-reports, parent and teacher rating scales, and individual structured interviews with students, parents and teachers. A total of 269 potential high-risk aggressive victims were identified from among 5,089 schoolchildren, 68 of whom were screened out and randomly assigned to 10 treatment groups, with 39 completing a one-year follow-up study. Multivariate analysis of variance identified significant improvements in physical and verbal victimization (F(2,47, 93.99) = 10.73, p < 0.01), verbal victimization (F(2.74, 104.14) = 12.80, p < 0.01) and social exclusion scores at the three follow-up assessments compared to the pre-treatment scores, and the qualitative results were consistent, showing participants' cognition, emotion, and behavior to have been positively reconstructed by the group intervention. The consistent quantitative and qualitative results confirm that the cognitive-behavioral group therapy program reported herein is effective in reducing aggressive victims' anxious and depressed emotions and reactive cognition.     

Behavioural deficiencies of aggressive 8–9 year old boys: An observational study

The nature of aggressive boys' behaviour is examined. Pre-selected matched pairs of aggressive and control boys were observed in a naturalistic setting which facilitated comparison of the way in which recorded behaviours affected their respective peer relationships. A continuous commentary describing the child's interactions with others was recorded simultaneously with the child's speech during school play. These data were transcribed and coded according to activity, social participation, neighbours, and interactions. Individual behavioural items were grouped on the basis of their functional similarity. Marked differences were found between the two groups on certain categories, giving a clear indication of specific deficiencies in the behavioural repertoire of the aggressive boys.     

Generalization of aggressive behavior in adolescent delinquent boys

The generalization of conditioned aggressive and nonaggressive responses in a group of six adolescent delinquent boys was investigated. Responses were reinforced in card games where a token reinforcement system with money as a back-up rinforcer was used. Conditioning of responses was rapid. Generalization, measured in terms of frequency of physical contact, was tested in a group game for which no reinforcement was given. Generalization occurred during aggressive contingencies. During nonaggressive contingencies, responses did not return completely to the baseline level.     

Attributional styles of aggressive boys and their mothers

To determine if mothers of aggressive boys have the same propensity as their sons to infer hostile intentions in ambiguous interpersonal situations, 50 mothers of aggressive and nonaggressive boys were each asked to interpret hypothetical situations involving themselves with their child, their partner, and a peer as well as hypothetical situations involving their child in interaction with classmates and teachers. Their sons also were each requested to interpret hypothetical situations involving themselves with their mother, a teacher, and a classmate. The results indicated that mothers of aggressive boys do share the propensity to infer hostility in ambiguous situations and may, in effect, model a hostile attributional bias. Mothers of aggressive boys failed to differentiate ambiguous from hostile situations and were as likely to infer hostile intentions in ambiguous as in hostile situations. The results also suggest a generalized tendency on the part of mothers of aggressive boys to infer negative motives and/or dispositions when accounting for the noxious behavior of their sons. Further, for the aggressive boys, the hostile attributional bias was evident with both peers and teachers. The presence of a hostile attribution was predictive of an aggressive response for the aggressive boys. Even in the face of clearly hostile, provocative behavior, nonaggressive boys were less likely to offer aggressive solutions than aggressive boys.The authors acknowledge the contribution of the staff from the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, and Grady Health Systems for their assistance and support in conducting this study.     

A qualitative and serial analysis of social problem solving in aggressive boys

Social problem solving skills in 84 elementary school aged boys were assessed to identify those responses most salient in the prediction of ratings of aggressive and socially withdrawn behavior. Aggressive and socially withdrawn boys did not differ from the control group in the number of effective first solutions generated to the hypothetical stories. The control group generated significantly more effective solutions as second alternatives to the stories than did the aggressive or socially withdrawn boys. In addition, the number of effective second responses generated significantly predicted both aggression and social withdrawal after controlling for verbal problem solving. Results are discussed in terms of differences in cognitive processes as well as implications for treatment.This research was partially supported by a grant to the first author from the Charles Rieley Armington Foundation on Values in Children. The authors wish to thank Dennis Drotar, Douglas Detterman, and Met Evans for their assistance with this project.     

Client characteristics associated with behavior change for treated and untreated aggressive boys

This study examined the relationship between subject characteristics of aggressive boys and their behavioral changes during a school year. Seventy-six boys in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades were identified by their teachers as the most disruptive and aggressive in their classes. These boys were assigned to untreated control, anger-coping, anger-coping plus goal-setting treatment, and minimal treatment goal-setting cells. The anger-coping treatment was based on cognitive behavioral procedures. In both anger-coping cells, greater reductions in rates of disruptive/aggressive off-task classroom behavior was predicted by having higher rates of these behaviors initially, and greater reductions in parents' ratings of aggression was predicted by having poor social problem-solving skills initially. Additional predictors of reductions in parents' ratings of aggression in one, but not both, anger-coping cells included having higher rates of somatic symptoms and poorer social acceptance by peers. In contrast to the other cells, those boys in the no-treatment group who demonstrated the greatest spontaneous improvement on these change measures were the ones who initially were the best problem-solvers and who had higher levels of self-esteem. This cognitive-behavioral treatment appeared to have most impact with those boys who were the most in need of intervention.Portions of this paper were presented at the American Psychological Association annual convention, Anaheim, California, August 1983. Acknowledgment is made of the administrative and/or financial support provided by the Durham County School System, the Duke University Medical Center Department of Psychiatry, and the Durham Community Guidance Clinic. Appreciation is expressed to the other coleaders of the groups: Rosalyn Alexander, Steve Harris, Pat Kirkley, Val McLean, Kathy McSwain, Connie Scott, Barbara Thornton, Mary Ann Black, Harvey Botman, Dr. Bonnie Gregory, and Dr. Renee Schoenfeld.     

Cognitive competencies and aggressive behavior: A developmental study

A number of studies have demonstrated that increased socially related cognitive skills are associated with decreases in aggressive behavior. However, the link between aggression and intelligence or academic skills is less evident. While some research indicates that poor academic performance is related to aggression, it is unclear which components of intellectual ability and performance are critical to the management of aggressive behaviors. In two independent longitudinal studies of elementary school-age children, the relationship among several aspects of cognitive competence and several aspects of aggressive behavior were examined. The results of the first study showed that aggressive behavior observed in kindergarten children was more closely related to academic performance in the first and second grades than to general cognitive ability (IQ). The results of the second study, a comprehensive three-year investigation of upper elementary school-age children, indicated that teachers' assessments of aggression and parents' ratings of cruelty were consistent over time for boys, but not for girls. The intercorrelations among aggression measures within each of the three years also revealed stable sex differences. Boys identified as aggressive in the classroom were more likely to be perceived as aggressive, cruel, and/or delinquent at home, but for girls, there was little correlation between aggression at school and in the home. The analyses relating measures of cognitive functioning to indices of aggressive behavior made clear the importance of discriminating among various facets of these psychological constructs. IQ had a negligible relationship with aggression and a weak inverse relationship to delinquency. An overall index of cognitive functioning was a somewhat more consistent negative correlate of aggression, cruelty, and delinquency, especially for boys. A similar pattern was found for the correlates of academic performance. Academic disability was strongly related to delinquency in boys, and to a lesser degree to aggression in boys. Of the several cognitively related factors that were explored, Low Need Achievement manifested the strongest and most consistent relationships with the different facets of aggression and antisocial behavior, especially in boys. The implications of these results for psychological interventions in the school are discussed.     

Situational consistency in behavioral patterns of aggressive boys: Methodological considerations on observational measures

The issue of situational consistency is of great interest for early intervention with aggressive boys, but efforts to show behavior stability across settings have been unsuccessful to date, due principally to methodological problems. It is argued here that a more appropriate matching of response form, interaction partner, and situations should increase the situation consistency of observed behavior. The results support this proposition in that, more crosssetting behavior consistency was found in the pairing of situations where aggressive boys (age 6–7 years) were interacting with an adult female (mother/child versus baby-sitter/child) than in the pairing of situations where the boys were interacting with an adult male (mother/child versus father/child) or with the teacher in a nondyadic situation (classroom). The implications of using an extreme group are also discussed.This research program was funded by Le Conseil Québécois de la Recherche Sociale, the Quebec Government's FCAR research program, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Ministry of Employment and Immigration, and the University of Montreal FDR program.     

Habituation of aggressive behavior in mice: A parametric study

The decline of aggression as a result of repeated episodes of fighting may represent a habituation phenomenon. The frequency of biting and sideways threat by male mice toward conspecific intruders declined over ten 5-min confrontations. Aggression returned to about 50% of original levels when a new intruder was introduced. Variations in length or frequency of confrontation indicated that the rate of decline of attack bites and sideways threats depended on these confrontation parameters. The condition that provided the fewest opportunities to fight provided the least decline in the frequency of attack and threat. The frequency of attack bites and sideways threats elicited by the presentation of a new intruder after repeated confrontations was greater than the frequency of attack bite and sideways threat in the last confrontation with the original intruder, when the resident and intruder were relatively inexperienced. Spontaneous recovery of attack and threat occurred but rate of recovery did not depend on confrontation parameters. The results indicate that the decrement of aggression in mice in repeated confrontations may be the result of habituation but fatigue is an important cofactor.     

Situational social problem-solving skills and self-esteem of aggressive and nonaggressive boys

This study was designed to assess specific social problem-solving, perceived competence, and selfesteem characteristics of 20 aggressive and 18 nonaggressive boys. Significant behavioral differences existed between the groups. The problem-solving measure provided for qualitative assessment of specific problem solutions that children consider, varying according to the interpersonal context of conflicts with peers, teachers, and parents and to the level of others' intent in conflicts (ambiguous frustration and hostile provocation). In univariate analyses, aggressive children had poorer selfesteem, generated fewer verbal assertion solutions in peer conflicts and during hostile frustration, and employed more direct action solutions with teachers and during hostile frustration. Discriminant analyses significantly differentiated the two groups. Findings indicated that future research should consider the relative distribution of specific kinds of problem situations that children produce, and that situational factors in social problem-solving skills should be addressed.This paper is based on a presentation made at the American Psychological Association annual convention in Los Angeles, August 1985. Acknowledgment is made of the administrative support provided by the Durham County Schools and the Durham Community Guidance Clinic. This research was supported in part by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and from the Research Branch of the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services. Appreciation is expressed to the school counselors who assisted with the coordination of this research: Tom Gemmer, Patricia Kirkley, Kathy McSwain, and Geoff Wyckoff.     

Engaging families in therapy: A pilot study

Engagement is reviewed as a central component of marriage and family therapy and presented as a viable means of assessing the nature and outcome of therapy. A tentative model containing six differentiated engagement categories is described and documented with clinical data and case examples. Conclusions drawn indicate engagement has merit as a construct for evaluating marriage and family therapy and as a means of generating process hypotheses in research. Recommendations to validate, refine and revise the model are posited and further research relative to engagement is advocated.James P. Trotzer, Ph.D. is Professor of Counselor Education at the University of Visconsin-River Falls, River Falls, Wisconsin 54022, marriage and family therapist in private practice