Continuity of aggression from childhood to early adulthood as a predictor of life outcomes: implications for the adolescent‐limited and life‐course‐persistent models

Using data from the Columbia County Longitudinal Study, a 40‐year longitudinal study following an entire county's population of third‐grade students from age 8 to 48, we examine questions about the long‐term consequences of aggressive and antisocial behavior in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. We found moderate levels of continuity of aggression from age 8 to 48 both for males and for females. Contrary to what some have proposed, we found that continuity of aggressiveness is owing to not only the high‐aggressive participants staying high but also owing to the low‐aggressive participants staying low. Compared with life‐course‐persistent low aggressives, we found that life‐course‐persistent high aggressives had consistently poorer outcomes across domains of life success, criminal behavior, and psychosocial functioning at age 48 (e.g., arrests, traffic violations, aggression toward spouse and divorces, depression, health, occupational and educational attainment). In contrast, adolescent‐limited and child‐limited aggressives did not differ from life‐course‐persistent low aggressives on the age 48 outcomes. Finally, the outcomes for late‐onset (early adulthood) aggressives were also problematic in some domains though not as problematic as those for life‐course‐persistent aggressives. Aggr. Behav. 35:136–149, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Association between adolescent rough-and-tumble play and conduct problems,substance use,and risk-taking behaviors: Findings from a school-based sample

Rough-and-tumble play (RTP), also known as play fighting, is a common form of play frequently reported and studied by researchers. However, one important limitation of past research in the area of RTP has been the neglect of the adolescence period. Consequently, little is known about the function of adolescent RTP as well as about clinical characteristics of youth who engage in this activity after childhood. In a school-based sample of 1,771 middle school students (ages 9–16 years), the current study sought to address this gap by examining, via bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses, the potential cross-sectional associations of adolescent RTP with (a) selected demographic variables, (b) conduct problem symptoms, (c) substance use, and (d) risk-taking behaviors, including adjustment for several demographic confounders. Results indicated that adolescents reporting higher rates of conduct problem symptoms were more likely to report a recent participation in RTP. In addition, substance use (experimentation and current consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana) and risk behaviors assessed all were strongly associated with an increased likelihood of reporting an engagement in RTP. This finding suggests that participation in this activity probably implicates particular phenotypic characteristics including the propensity to engage in health-damaging behaviors. But the most profound issue raised by this research concerns the strong relationship between RTP and great levels of conduct disorder symptoms, suggesting a possible significant change in the functional significance of RTP in the adolescence period.