CONTINUITIES IN AGGRESSIVE-BEHAVIOR FROM CHILDHOOD TO ADULTHOOD

The study was part of the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study on Social Development. The subjects (originally 173 females, 196 males) were studied at age 8, 14, 20, and 26. Stability of aggression from the age of 8 to 14 was as high for girls as for boys when peer nomination was employed, but lower for girls in teacher rating. For males, both peer nominations and teacher ratings on aggression at age 8 and 14 predicted criminality, arrests for alcohol abuse, and problem drinking as well as self-reports on aggression at age 26. The outcomes were most negative if aggression was patterned with other adjustment problems. For females, teacher ratings on aggression were biased by school adjustment, and they predicted arrests for alcohol abuse and problem drinking; peer nominations predicted self-reports on aggression. Developmental trajectories for physically aggressive girls differed from those for verbally and facially aggressive girls, the former being less oriented to education. Sex differences did not exist in the amount of aggression when measured with peer nominations, but boys were more aggressive when measured with teacher ratings. (C) 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.