14.3 Antisocial Behavior

Antisocial behavior: disruptive, hostile, or aggressive behavior that violates social norms or rules and that harms or takes advantage of clothes 

Aggression: subcategory of antisocial behavior that involves acts intended to physically or emotionally harm others 

The Development of Antisocial Behaviors 

Before 12 months – aggression over desirable possessions – especially behaviors such as trying to tug objects away from each other – does not involve bodily contact

18 months – physical aggression normative in development and increases in frequency until about age 2 or 3 

• Growth of language skills, physical aggression decreases, and verbal aggression increases 

• Most frequent in preschool years – conflicts between peers over possessions and conflict between siblings over almost anything 

Instrumental aggression: aggression motivated by the desire to obtain a concrete goal, such as gaining possession of a toy or getting a better place in line 

Relational aggression 

• Also used by preschool children 

• Linked to theory of mind skills, particularly for children with low levels of prosocial skills 

• Theory of mind skills at age 5 predicted levels of relational aggression 1 year later, but only for children who were rated a low to average on prosocial behavior 

Physical aggression 

• Drop also due to their developing ability to use language to resolve or pursue conflicts and to control their own emotions and actions

• Children who engage in physical aggression tend to also engage in relational aggression 

• The frequency of physical aggression decreases for most teenagers, at least after mid-adolescence 

• Serious acts of violence increase markedly in mid-adolescents, as do property offenses and status offenses 

• There is considerable consistency in individuals differences in both girls and boys aggression 

• Children who are the most aggressive and prone to antisocial behavior in middle childhood tend to be more aggressive and delinquent in adolescents – holds true especially for boys 

• Many children who are aggressive from early in life have neurological deficits 

• Deficit may become marked with age and can result on troubles relations 

• Problems with attention are particularly likely to have this effect because they make it difficult for aggressive children to carefully consider all the relevant information in a social situation before deciding how to act; 

• Youth who develop problem behaviors in adolescence typically engaging in antisocial behavior later in adolescence or early adulthood 

• Those will low impulse control, poor regulation of aggression and a weak orientation toward to the future continue to engage 

The Origins of Aggression and Antisocial Behavior   

Biological Factors 

• Twin studies – suggest that antisocial behavior runs in families and is partially due to genetics 

• Heredity appears to play a stronger role in aggression in early childhood and adulthood than it does in adolescence, when environmental factors are a major contributor to it 

• In terms of stability of individual differences in aggression and the association of aggression with psychopathic traits, the influence of heredity is greater for proactive aggression

• Difficult temperament 

• The biological correlates of aggression are most likely neither necessary nor sufficient to cause aggressive behavior in most children 

• Genetic, neurological, or hormonal characteristics many put a child at risk for developing aggressive and antisocial behavior

• But whether a child becomes aggressive will depend on numerous factors 

Social Cognition 

• Children’s aggressive behaviors are often in reaction to how they interpret social situations 

• Their goal in such social encounters are also more likely to be hostile and inappropriate to the situations, typically involving attempts to intimidate or get back at a peer 

• Most children are more likely to describe their own aggressive behavior as a natural reaction to the behaviors of others than they are to describe their helping behaviors as such 

• Aggressive children and adolescents are also inclined to evaluate aggressive responses more favorably and prosocial responses less favorably

• Not all aggressive children exhibit the same biases in social cognition 

Reactive aggression: emotionally driven, antagonistic aggression sparked by one’s perception that other people’s motive are hostile 

Proactive aggression: unemotional aggression aimed at fulfilling a need or desire 

• Anticipate more positive social consequences for aggression 

Family Influences on Aggression and Antisocial Behavior 

• Children who experience harsh or uninvolved parenting are at greater risk of becoming aggressive/antisocial  

Parental punitiveness

• Often use harsh but non-abusive physical punishment are prone to problem behaviors in early years, aggression in childhood and, criminality in adolescence and adulthood 

• Research found that there is no difference in relation between physical punishment and children's antisocial behavior across racial, ethnic and cultural groups

• Harsh or abusive punishment is also consistently associated with the development of antisocial tendencies 

• There is probably a reciprocal relation between children’s behavior and their parent’s punitive discipline, especially when parents model aggression for their children by using physical punishment to discipline them 

• Ineffective discipline is often evident in the patterns of troubled family interaction 

• Coercive cycles

• Especially probable in the case of out-of-control children, who are much more likely than other children to react negatively to their parents’ attempts to discipline them

• Have genetic component

• Punitive parenting can be linked to antisocial and aggressive behavior in children both directly through genes and indirectly through a conflictual and punitive home environment 

• Twin studies – indicate that the relation between punitive parenting and children’s antisocial behavior is not entirely due to hereditary factors 

• Punitive parenting environment is more influential then genes in predicting problematic child behavior

Poor parental monitoring

• Important because it reduced the likelihood that older children and adolescents will associate with deviant, antisocial peers 

• Also makes it more likely that parents will know whether their children are engaging in antisocial behavior 

• Once adolescents begin engaging in aggressive and antisocial behaviors, they become even harder to monitor 

Parental conflict

• Frequently exposed children to verbal/physical violence between parents tend to more antisocial and aggressive

• Embattles parents model aggressive behavior for children 

• Children whose mothers are physically abused tend to believe that violence is an acceptable, even natural part of family interactions 

• Also been found in families with adopted children 

Socioeconomic status and children’s antisocial behavior

• Low-income families – more antisocial and aggressive children

• One major factor – greater number of stressors experienced by children in low-income families      

• May stressors – parents living near or below the federal poverty line – more likely to be rejecting and low in warmth 

• Low-income neighborhood – linked to higher rate of violence/crime 

Peer Influences on Aggression and Antisocial Behavior 

• The expression of a genetic tendency towards aggression is stronger for individuals who have aggressive friends 

• Members of the larger peer group with whom older children and adolescents socialize may influence aggression even more than their close friends do 

• Associating with delinquent peers tends to increase delinquency because these peers model and reinforce antisocial behavior in the peer group    

• Children’s susceptibility to peer pressure to become involved in antisocial behavior increases in elementary school years peaks at about 8th or 9th grade and declines thereafter 

• Peer approval of relational aggression increases in middle school, and students in peer groups that are supportive of relational aggression become increasingly aggressive 

Biology and socialization: their joint influence on children’s antisocial behavior 

• Often it's a combination of genetic and environmental factors that predict children’s antisocial, aggressive behavior and that some children are more sensitive to the quality of parenting than are others 

• Such gene variants are related to higher risk for aggression in adverse situations like maltreatment and divorce but are not related to aggression in the absence of the adverse conditions 

• Seems clear that the degree of aggression is affected by a combination of heredity and the environment 

Interventions for Aggressive and Antisocial Children 

• Can be successfully treated with individual psychotherapy or with a combination of psychotherapy and drug therapy

• Also often useful and even necessary to involve parents 

• Interventions that teach parents how to better manage their own behavior when interacting with their children can help reduce children’s aggression and antisocial behavior 

• Community-based programs that aim to reduce antisocial behavior by increasing positive behavior through an approach called positive youth development 

• Schools can also be settings for effective intervention with this population – Fast Track Program 

• Numerous other programs have been used to combat bullying in schools, and many appear to reduce the incidence of bullying considerably; the more effective programs target adolescents rather than younger children