Precursors to aggression are evident by 6 months of age

Dale F Hay; Cerith S Waters; Oliver Perra; Naomi Swift; Victoria Kairis; Rebecca Phillips; Roland Jones; Ian Goodyer; Gordon Harold; Anita Thapar; Stephanie van Goozen

doi:10.1111/desc.12133

Precursors to aggression are evident by 6 months of age

Dale F Hay, Cerith S Waters, Oliver Perra, Naomi Swift, Victoria Kairis, Rebecca Phillips, Roland Jones, Ian Goodyer, Gordon Harold, Anita Thapar, Stephanie van Goozen

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

54 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

We tested the hypothesis that developmental precursors to aggression are apparent in infancy. Up to three informants rated 301 firstborn infants for early signs of anger, hitting and biting; 279 (93%) were assessed again as toddlers. Informants' ratings were validated by direct observation at both ages. The precursor behaviours were significantly associated with known risk factors for high levels of aggressiveness. Individual differences were stable from early infancy to the third year and predicted broader conduct problems. These findings suggest that some individuals set forth on the trajectory to high levels of aggression by 6 months of age. The findings have implications for developmental studies of aggression, clinical prevention and intervention strategies, and theoretical considerations regarding the detection of precursors in different domains of development.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	471-480
Number of pages	10
Journal	Developmental science
Volume	17
Issue number	3
Early online date	25 Feb 2014
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12133
Publication status	Published - May 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Developmental and Educational Psychology

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10.1111/desc.12133

Precursors to aggression are evident by 6 months of age
© 2014 The Authors. Developmental Science Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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abstract = "We tested the hypothesis that developmental precursors to aggression are apparent in infancy. Up to three informants rated 301 firstborn infants for early signs of anger, hitting and biting; 279 (93%) were assessed again as toddlers. Informants' ratings were validated by direct observation at both ages. The precursor behaviours were significantly associated with known risk factors for high levels of aggressiveness. Individual differences were stable from early infancy to the third year and predicted broader conduct problems. These findings suggest that some individuals set forth on the trajectory to high levels of aggression by 6 months of age. The findings have implications for developmental studies of aggression, clinical prevention and intervention strategies, and theoretical considerations regarding the detection of precursors in different domains of development.",

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AU - Kairis, Victoria

AU - Phillips, Rebecca

AU - Jones, Roland

AU - Goodyer, Ian

AU - Harold, Gordon

AU - Thapar, Anita

AU - van Goozen, Stephanie

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Precursors to aggression are evident by 6 months of age

Abstract

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