A prospective,longitudinal cohort study: The impact of child maltreatment on delinquency among South Korean youth in middle and high school

BackgroundCultural groups vary in how they understand child maltreatment and children's misbehavior and these cultural variations may impact the relationship between maltreatment and delinquency.ObjectiveThis study investigated the impact of maltreatment on delinquency among South Korean youth. Participants and Setting: Using Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey data, this study followed two cohorts of middle (n = 2,275) and high (n = 2,272) school youth for their first self-reported delinquency over 4 years.MethodDiscrete-time hazard model was used for the analyses.ResultsApproximately 19% of middle and 11% of high school youth engaged in delinquency for 4 years. Maltreatment is associated with delinquency only for high school youth (HR = 1.42). In both cohorts, male youth with high levels of aggression were more likely to engage in delinquency. Additional risk factors included high levels of depression (HR = 1.36) and negative attitudes toward school rules (HR = 0.68), father's education less than high school (HR = 0.63), low levels of self-control (HR = 0.63). Findings also identified culturally unique factors that place Korean youth at heightened risk of delinquency: mother's education more than high school (HR = 1.49) and higher family income (HR = 1.93).ConclusionPreventive interventions need to identify culturally specific risk factors for youth at increased risk of delinquency and thus these preventive interventions should be culturally tailored.     

Verbal aggression by parents and psychosocial problems of children

Analyses of data on a nationally representative sample of 3,346 American parents with a child under 18 living at home found that 63% reported one or more instances of verbal aggression, such as swearing and insulting the child. Children who experienced frequent verbal aggression from parents (as measured by the Conflict Tactic Scales) exhibited higher rates of physical aggression, delinquency, and interpersonal problems than other children. This relationship is robust since it applies to preschool-, elementary school-, and high school-age children, to both boys and girls, and to children who were also physically punished as well as those who were not. Children who experienced both verbal aggression and severe physical violence exhibited the highest rates of aggression, delinquency, and interpersonal problems.     

Trajectories of Boys' Physical Aggression, Opposition, and Hyperactivity on the Path to Physically Violent and Nonviolent Juvenile Delinquency

A semi-parametric mixture model was used with a sample of 1,037 boys assessed repeatedly from 6 to 15 years of age to approximate a continuous distribution of developmental trajectories for three externalizing behaviors. Regression models were then used to determine which trajectories best predicted physically violent and nonviolent juvenile delinquency up to 17 years of age. Four developmental trajectories were identified for the physical aggression, opposition, and hyperactivity externalizing behavior dimensions: a chronic problem trajectory, a high level near-desister trajectory, a moderate level desister trajectory, and a no problem trajectory. Boys who followed a given trajectory for one type of externalizing problem behavior did not necessarily follow the same trajectory for the two other types of behavior problem. The different developmental trajectories of problem behavior also led to different types of juvenile delinquency. A chronic oppositional trajectory, with the physical aggression and hyperactivity trajectories being held constant, led to covert delinquency (theft) only, while a chronic physical aggression trajectory, with the oppositional and hyperactivity trajectories being held constant, led to overt delinquency (physical violence) and to the most serious delinquent acts.     

The relation between third graders' after-school care and social, academic, and emotional functioning

Outcome differences associated with types of after-school care were explored among 150 white, predominantly middle-class third graders from a suburban school system. Children returned home to their mothers, attended day-care centers, stayed with sitters, or returned home alone or with siblings. No differences were found between latchkey and mother-care children in terms of their classroom sociometric nominations, academic grades, standardized test scores, conduct grades, self-reports of self-competence, or parent and teacher ratings of the children. Significant differences were found for children who attended day-care centers after school. These children received more negative peer nominations, made lower academic grades, and had lower standardized test scores than either mother-care or latchkey children. The children who stayed with sitters after school received more negative peer nominations than the latchkey and mother-care children but, in other areas, resembled these groups. These outcome differences were apparent in both divorced and intact families. Factors contributing to these differences are examined.     

The Development of Aggression within Sibling Conflict

Sibling physical aggression and parents' and children's responses to such aggression were observed in 40 families when children were approximately 2% and 4% years of age, and two years later when they were 4% and 6%. Aggression occurred in all families, with first-born siblings being more aggressive than second-borns, and second-born siblings being more likely to cry, especially at the first time period. Parents responded to half of their children's aggression, and were more likely to respond if victims had cried. Only when parents intervened did the conflict resolution indicate to the children that physical aggression was not acceptable. Most responses by both parents and child victims were simple commands to stop aggression, and discussion of issues that gave rise to the aggression. Less frequent parent and child responses, such as physical reactions or approval of aggression by parents, and discussions of feelings or rules, or crying by first-born children were related to only the aggression of second-born siblings at Time 1. Furthermore, the only variables that predicted aggression at Time 2 were the levels of aggression that the children exhibited at Time 1, with relatively aggressive first-born children and relatively unaggressive second-born children predicting higher levels of sibling aggression two years later. Results were discussed in terms of family influences in the development of relatively aggressive or unaggressive sibling relationships over time.     

The Development of Aggression within Sibling Conflict

Sibling physical aggression and parents' and children's responses to such aggression were observed in 40 families when children were approximately 2% and 4% years of age, and two years later when they were 4% and 6%. Aggression occurred in all families, with first-born siblings being more aggressive than second-borns, and second-born siblings being more likely to cry, especially at the first time period. Parents responded to half of their children's aggression, and were more likely to respond if victims had cried. Only when parents intervened did the conflict resolution indicate to the children that physical aggression was not acceptable. Most responses by both parents and child victims were simple commands to stop aggression, and discussion of issues that gave rise to the aggression. Less frequent parent and child responses, such as physical reactions or approval of aggression by parents, and discussions of feelings or rules, or crying by first-born children were related to only the aggression of second-born siblings at Time 1. Furthermore, the only variables that predicted aggression at Time 2 were the levels of aggression that the children exhibited at Time 1, with relatively aggressive first-born children and relatively unaggressive second-born children predicting higher levels of sibling aggression two years later. Results were discussed in terms of family influences in the development of relatively aggressive or unaggressive sibling relationships over time.     

The timing of middle-childhood peer rejection and friendship: linking early behavior to early-adolescent adjustment

This study used a sample of 551 children surveyed yearly from ages 6 to 13 to examine the longitudinal associations among early behavior, middle-childhood peer rejection and friendedness, and early-adolescent depressive symptoms, loneliness, and delinquency. The study tested a sequential mediation hypothesis in which (a) behavior problems in the early school years are associated with middle-childhood peer rejection and (b) rejection, in turn, leads to lower friendedness and subsequently higher adolescent internalizing--but not externalizing--problems. Results supported this sequential mediation model for internalizing outcomes and revealed an additional path from early disruptiveness to loneliness via peer rejection alone. No evidence of sequential mediation was observed for delinquency.     

Peer rejection and social information-processing factors in the development of aggressive behavior problems in children

The relation between social rejection and growth in antisocial behavior was investigated. In Study 1,259 boys and girls (34% African American) were followed from Grades 1 to 3 (ages 6-8 years) to Grades 5 to 7 (ages 10-12 years). Early peer rejection predicted growth in aggression. In Study 2,585 boys and girls (16% African American) were followed from kindergarten to Grade 3 (ages 5-8 years), and findings were replicated. Furthermore, early aggression moderated the effect of rejection, such that rejection exacerbated antisocial development only among children initially disposed toward aggression. In Study 3, social information-processing patterns measured in Study 1 were found to mediate partially the effect of early rejection on later aggression. In Study 4, processing patterns measured in Study 2 replicated the mediation effect. Findings are integrated into a recursive model of antisocial development.     

Peer status and behaviors of maltreated children and their classmates in the early years of school

OBJECTIVE: The aims of the present study were to investigate (1) whether young children with a known history of maltreatment by caregivers have more problematic peer relationships and classroom behaviors than other children, and (2) if children's behaviors with peers mediated associations between maltreatment and children's problem peer relations. METHOD: Participants included 400 young children (ages 4-8, M age=6.6), and 24 teachers in 22 schools. Six percent of children had a known history of maltreatment. Multiple methods (ratings and nominations) and reporters (children and teachers) were utilized to obtain information on peer relationships. Teachers reported children's physical/verbal aggression, and withdrawn and prosocial behaviors. RESULTS: Young children were able to nominate and rate whom they liked versus disliked in their classes, and their reports were modestly correlated with teacher reports. Regardless of the reporter, maltreated children were significantly more disliked, physically/verbally aggressive, withdrawn, and less prosocial, compared with their classmates. Among all children, physical/verbal aggression, withdrawal, and prosocial behavior were associated independently with some aspect of peer status. Maltreatment had indirect associations with peer likeability and peer rejection via maltreated children's relatively higher levels of physical/verbal aggression and, in some cases, withdrawal and relatively lower prosocial behavior. Maltreatment had an indirect association with teacher-reported peer acceptance via children's withdrawal. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indirectly associate early family experiences with problems in peer relationships, especially lower peer likeability and more rejection, via children's behaviors with peers. The finding that linkages exist even in the very earliest years of school highlights the need for very early home- or school-based efforts focused on improving behavior and relationships of maltreated children and others children with similar profiles.     

The role of peer relationships in the development of early school-age externalizing problems

This study investigated the role of peer rejection and best friend's externalizing behavior in the development of externalizing behavior in 740 children followed annually from kindergarten (mean age=6.2, SD=0.46) to 3rd grade. Consistently across time, children's externalizing problems predicted peer rejection. Peer rejection, in turn, added to the prediction of externalizing problems above and beyond prior levels of problem behavior. Having a best friend with externalizing problems did not add to the prediction of children's externalizing problems. All findings were similar for boys and girls. These results suggest that in early elementary school peer rejection, but not yet best friend's behavioral characteristics, has an additive effect on children's externalizing problem development.     

The Role of Overt Aggression, Relational Aggression, and Prosocial Behavior in the Prediction of Children's Future Social Adjustment

2 limitations of past research on social adjustment were addressed: (1) the tendency to focus on forms of aggression that are typical of boys (e.g., overt aggression) and to neglect forms that are more typical of girls (e.g., relational aggression) and (2) the tendency to study negative behaviors (e.g., aggression), to the exclusion of positive behaviors (e.g., prosocial acts). Using a longitudinal design ( n = 245; third- through sixth-grade children, 9–12 years old), assessments of children's relational aggression, overt aggression, prosocial behavior, and social adjustment were obtained at 3 points during the academic year. Findings showed that, as has been demonstrated in past research for overt aggression, individual differences in relational aggression were relatively stable over time. Additionally, relational aggression contributed uniquely to the prediction of future social maladjustment, beyond that predicted by overt aggression. Finally, prosocial behavior contributed unique information (beyond that provided by overt and relational aggression) to the prediction of future social adjustment.     

An adoption study of the etiology of teacher and parent reports of externalizing behavior problems in middle childhood

Twin studies of externalizing behavior problems in middle childhood and early adolescence suggest that there is moderate-to-substantial genetic variance and modest-to-moderate shared environmental variance in these behaviors. The present study is novel in three ways: it is a sibling adoption study, it employs both teacher and parent ratings of children's behaviors averaged over five assessments, and it explores aggression and delinquency separately. The sample included 78 adoptive sibling pairs and 94 biologically related sibling pairs in the Colorado Adoption Project. Parents and teachers completed ratings of the children's externalizing behavior problems at ages 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12 years. Boys and adopted children were rated as being somewhat higher in externalizing behavior problems. Sex differences in delinquency were more pronounced in adoptive than in nonadoptive families. Teachers' ratings showed evidence for moderate heritability and no shared environment for aggression and showed modest shared environment for delinquency. Parents' ratings showed evidence for moderate amounts of heritability and shared environment for both aggression and delinquency.     

Forbidden friends as forbidden fruit: parental supervision of friendships, contact with deviant peers, and adolescent delinquency

Spending leisure time with deviant peers may have strong influences on adolescents' delinquency. The current 3-wave multi-informant study examined how parental control and parental prohibition of friendships relate to these undesirable peer influences. To this end, annual questionnaires were administered to 497 Dutch youths (283 boys, mean age = 13 years at baseline), their best friends, and both parents. Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed strong longitudinal links from contacts with deviant peers to adolescent delinquency, but not vice versa. Parent-reported prohibition of friendships positively predicted contacts with deviant peers and indirectly predicted higher adolescent delinquency. Similar indirect effects were not found for parental control. The results suggest that forbidden friends may become "forbidden fruit," leading to unintended increases in adolescents' own delinquency.     

Aggression between peers in early childhood: individual continuity and developmental change

43 children were observed in play with "best available friends" at 2 and again at 5 years of age. An arousing stimulus, an angry interaction between adults, was introduced during play sessions to increase the likelihood of elicitation of aggressive patterns. Dimensions of physical aggression at age 2 (e.g., object-related aggression, bodily aggression) predicted dimensions of children's physical aggression at age 5. However, substantial sex differences in the stability of aggression were found. Among boys, the disposition to engage in physical aggression was highly stable, with correlations ranging as high as r = .76. Certain dimensions of physical aggression at age 2 were also positively associated with verbal aggression at age 5. Fewer and more modest correlations were found among girls. The frequency of aggression, particularly bodily aggression (e.g., hitting, pushing), initiations of aggression, and the average length of aggression episodes, decreased between 2 and 5 years of age. These results indicate that relative aggressiveness tends to remain stable despite declines in the frequency of aggressive behavior between 2 and 5 years of age.     

Does Absenteeism Differ for Children with Disabilities in Full-Day versus Part-Day Kindergarten?1

Little is known about the effects of attending full-day versus part-day kindergarten for children with disabilities, and nothing is known about how these settings link to differences in children's school absences. This is concerning, given that children with disabilities have higher absence rates compared to children in the general population. To address this gap, this study examined a nationally-representative sample of kindergartners with disabilities and inquired into whether going to full- versus part-day kindergarten predicted differences in absences. Children with disabilities in full-day kindergarten had more total number of school days missed as well as a higher chance of being chronically absent compared to those children in part-day kindergarten. However, the size of this association was reduced for children with disabilities in lower-SES families and for boys with disabilities. There were no differences by disability category. Policy implications are discussed in terms of how early educational settings can be most supportive, and for whom.     

Reciprocal Nominations,Reciprocal Rejections and Loneliness among Students with Learning Disorders

The study examined the relations between reciprocal nominations, reciprocal rejections and loneliness among children with learning disorders. The sample consisted of 238 Israeli students: 110 students with learning disorders (LD) and 128 students with no LD (NLD) drawn from 2nd to 6th Grades (ages: M = 9.83 years, SD = 1.35). Participants were assessed on: loneliness, sense of coherence, friendship quality, reciprocal friendship and reciprocal rejection nominations. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that loneliness experience was significantly predicted by sense of coherence, peer reciprocal rejection and conception of friendship qualities. Students with LD who had at least one reciprocal rejection with a classmate felt more lonely and less coherent than did their NLD peers. Within the LD group, those children who had at least one reciprocal rejection with a classmate felt more lonely and less coherent than did LD children who had no reciprocal rejection. Such significant within‐group differences were not found in the NLD group. The discussion emphasises the importance of the examination of intra‐ and interpersonal variables in the understanding the loneliness experience among LD children, with special focus on the role of reciprocal negative nominations.     

Social functioning and adjustment in Chinese children: the imprint of historical time

This study examined, in 3 cohorts (1990, 1998, and 2002) of elementary school children (M age=10 years), relations between social functioning and adjustment in different phases of the societal transition in China. Data were obtained from multiple sources. The results indicate that sociability-cooperation was associated with peer acceptance and teacher-rated competence, whereas aggression was associated with social and school difficulties in all 3 cohorts. The effect of different social contexts was reflected mainly in the relations between shyness-sensitivity and adjustment. Whereas shyness was associated with social and academic achievement in the 1990 cohort, the associations became weaker or nonsignificant in the 1998 cohort. Furthermore, shyness was associated with peer rejection, school problems, and depression in the 2002 cohort.     

Adolescents' Conceptions of Teachers' Authority and Their Relations to Rule Violations in School

Conceptions of teachers' authority and reported misconduct regarding 20 moral, conventional, personal, contextually conventional, and prudential issues were assessed in 120 fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh graders (mean ages = 10.66, 12.88, 15.04, and 17.25 years, respectively). Adolescents viewed moral, conventional, and prudential issues as legitimately subject to teachers' authority and personal issues as under personal jurisdiction, but they were equivocal about contextually conventional issues. Fifth graders judged all acts as more legitimately subject to teachers' authority, all rule violations as more negative, and personal and prudential issues as personal more than did older students. Conventional misconduct was more frequent and moral misconduct was less frequent than other rule violations, but both were greater among boys than girls. Adolescents' negative rule evaluations, fewer rules, greater dislike for school, poorer grades, and living in single- or step-parent families predicted teacher- and self-reported misconduct. Relations to previous research on conceptions of adult authority, school misconduct, and autonomy development are discussed.     

CORRELATES OF PURE AND CO‐OCCURRING PROACTIVE AND REACTIVE AGGRESSORS IN HONG KONG

Research on aggression in the West has focused mainly on the dichotomy between proactive and reactive aggression, but not the co‐occurring proactive–reactive aggression subtype, despite its prevalence. The authors investigated the differences in psychological and behavioral correlates among proactive, reactive, and proactive–reactive student aggressors and nonaggressors in Hong Kong, China, based on their scores on the Reactive and Proactive Aggression Questionnaire. Participants were 1,356 secondary school students (805 males and 551 females, aged 11 to 18 years). A one‐way multivariate analysis of covariance was conducted to examine group differences in aggression, attention deficits, anxiety/depression, and delinquency. Results showed that proactive–reactive aggressors were significantly more aggressive, less attentive, more anxious/depressed, and more engaged in delinquent behaviors. Reactive and proactive aggressors did not differ in three of these four behaviors. Implications for research and practice when working with proactive–reactive aggressors are discussed.     

Meeting Goals and Confronting Conflict: Children's Changing Perceptions of Social Comparison

It was proposed that previously observed grade-related changes in children's social comparison behavior could be explained by the changing goals and meanings children assign to this behavior. Specifically, it was suggested that, as children progress through the school system, they become increasingly aware of the negative and positive aspects of social comparison and adjust their behavior in response to this awareness, as well as to increasingly salient self-evaluation goals. To examine these propositions, 106 elementary school children were observed in their classrooms and interviewed once a year for 3 years. Consistent with previous research, overt forms of social comparison were most frequent among younger children, whereas subtle forms of social comparison were most frequent among older children. Furthermore, with increasing grade children were likely to view overt forms of social comparison negatively and subtle forms as useful in meeting self-evaluation goals. Additional analyses revealed little association between perceptions of social comparison and actual social comparison behavior, except that perceiving subtle social comparison as useful for self-evaluative goals predicted engagement in such behavior 2 years later.