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Early childhood predictors of boys’ antisocial and violent behavior in early adulthood
Author(s) -
Sitnick Stephanie L.,
Galán Chardée A.,
Shaw Daniel S.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
infant mental health journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1097-0355
pISSN - 0163-9641
DOI - 10.1002/imhj.21754
Subject(s) - psychology , anxiety , early adulthood , early childhood , developmental psychology , conduct disorder , criminal behavior , clinical psychology , depression (economics) , injury prevention , poison control , young adult , psychiatry , medicine , social psychology , environmental health , economics , macroeconomics
ABSTRACT Research on early childhood predictors of violent behaviors in early adulthood is limited. The current study investigated whether individual, family, and community risk factors from 18 to 42 months of age were predictive of violent criminal arrests during late adolescence and early adulthood using a sample of 310 low‐income male participants living in an urban community. In addition, differences in trajectories of overt conduct problems (CP), hyperactivity/attention problems (HAP), and co‐occurring patterns of CP and HAP from age 1½ to 10 years were investigated in regard to their relationship to violent and nonviolent behaviors, depression, and anxiety at age 20. Results of multivariate analyses indicated that early childhood family income, home environment, emotion regulation, oppositional behavior, and minority status were all significant in distinguishing violent offending boys from those with no criminal records. In addition, trajectories of early childhood CP, but not attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, were significantly related to self‐reports of violent behavior, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. Implications for the prevention of early childhood risk factors associated with adolescent and adult violent behavior for males are discussed.