Addressing Aggression in Early Childhood

Physical aggression - including biting, kicking, hitting, and pushing - isn't uncommon during the first few years of childhood, but most children learn to control aggressive behaviors during the preschool years. When aggression continues into the primary school years, it increases the likelihood that these children will become violent as teens and adults. To understand more about risk factors and characteristics of aggressive children, researchers from three Canadian universities and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania studied the development of aggressive behaviors in children starting at 5 months of age.

A random sample of 572 families with 5-month-old infants netted 502 children who were followed from 5 to 42 months of age. Mothers provided information about their children's temperament, such as whether he or she was fussy, easily upset, or easy to soothe. When the children were 17, 30, and 42 months old, the moms completed questionnaires about whether their children ever hit, bit, kicked, fought, or bullied others. Moms also provided information about their parenting style and background (such as whether they had been in trouble with school or the law during adolescence).

Aggressive behavior tended to fall into three categories:

• children who showed little or no aggressive behavior (28% of the children in the study)
• children who showed moderate levels of aggressive behavior (58% of the children in the study)
• children who showed high levels of aggressive behavior (14% of the children in the study)

Certain factors placed a child at risk for having high physical aggression levels, including having young siblings and being in a low-income family. Children who had moms with certain characteristics - including moms who started having children at a young age, moms who smoked during pregnancy, and moms who had problems in high school - were also at greater risk for having high levels of aggressive behavior.

The researchers in this study point out that at risk kids and parents  may benefit most from intervention programs to prevent aggression that starts early, before aggression becomes a way of life.

What This Means to You: Aggressive children are at greater risk of alcohol and drug abuse, accidents, violent crimes, depression, suicide attempts, spouse abuse, and neglectful and abusive parenting. Intervention programs that wait until the school age years may be too late to prevent aggressive behavior, so addressing aggression during infancy and the preschool years may have a more significant impact on the problem. If you're concerned that your preschooler hits, bites, kicks, fights, or bullies a lot, talk to your child's doctor - he or she may recommend a program that can help your child learn acceptable ways to express frustration and anger that don't include aggressive behavior.

Source: Richard E. Tremblay, PhD; Daniel S. Nagin, PhD; Jean R. Seguin, PhD; Mark Zoccolillo, MD; Philip D. Zelazo, PhD; Michel Boivin, PhD; Daniel Perusse, PhD; Christa Japel, PhD; Pediatrics, July 2004

Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD
Date reviewed: August 2004

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