Citation

Aimé C, Paquette D, Déry M, Verlaan P. Aggressive Behav. 2018; 44(4): 382-393.

Affiliation

Department of Psychoeducation, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, International Society for Research on Aggression, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/ab.21759

PMID

29574968

Abstract

The aim of this study was to advance our understanding of the development of aggression in boys and girls by testing a model combining insights from both evolutionary theory and developmental psychology. A sample of 744 children (348 girls) between six and 13 years old was recruited in schools with high deprivation indices. Half of the sample (N = 372; 40.1% girls) had received special educational services for behavioral and/or socio-emotional problems. Two trajectories for overt aggression and two trajectories for indirect aggression were identified and binomial logistic regressions were used to identify environmental predictors and sex-specific patterns of these trajectories.

RESULTS indicated that peer rejection predicted overt aggression and indirect aggression and that extraversion and male sex predicted overt aggression. The results also showed that interaction between parental practices and some child temperament traits predicted overt aggression (coercion and lack of supervision associated with extraversion or low effortful control) or indirect aggression (coercion and neglect associated with negative affect or low effortful control), and the absence of a father figure predicted high indirect aggression in girls.

© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

developmental trajectories; environmental predictors; indirect aggression; overt aggression; sex-specific patterns