Résultats de recherche

1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« This study aimed, first, to identify the trajectories of physical aggression during early childhood and, second, to identify antecedents of high levels of physical aggression early in life. Such antecedents could help to understand better the developmental origins of violence later in life and to identify targets for preventive interventions. » (p. e43)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« A total of 504 children were followed from 5 to 42 months of age to assess the developmental course of physical aggression. Mothers were interviewed at home 4 times, when their child was 5, 17, 30, and 42 months of age. Subjects were selected using the Québec Ministry of Health and Social Services registry of new births. A random sample of single births was selected with a stratified procedure on the basis of the mother’s area of residence and gender of the child. Area of residence was limited to a 1-hour drive by car from the 2 main urban centers in the province of Québec; also, families were excluded when parents did not understand French or English. » (p.e44)

Instruments :
Des questionnaires mesurant les dimensions suivantes furent employés au cours de l’étude :
- « Physical Aggression at 17, 30, and 42 Months After Birth »;
- « Child Temperament at 5 Months After Birth »;
- « Mothers’ Quality of Parenting at 5 Months After Birth »;
- « Parent Background and Family Characteristics ».

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« Results : Three trajectories of physical aggression were identified. The first was composed of children who displayed little or no physical aggression. These individuals were estimated to account for 28% of the sample. The largest group, estimated at 58% of the sample, followed a rising trajectory of modest aggression. Finally, a group, estimated to comprise 14% of the sample, followed a rising trajectory of high physical aggression. Best predictors before or at birth of the high physical aggression trajectory group, controlling for the levels of the other risk factors, were having young siblings […], mothers with high levels of antisocial behavior before the end of high school […], mothers who started having children early […], families with low income […], and mothers who smoked during pregnancy […]. Best predictors at 5 months of age were mothers’ coercive parenting behavior […] and family dysfunction […]. The [odds ratio] for a high-aggression trajectory was 10.9 for children whose mother reported both high levels of antisocial behavior and early childbearing.
Conclusions : Most children have initiated the use of physical aggression during infancy, and most will learn to use alternatives in the following years before they enter primary school. Humans seem to learn to regulate the use of physical aggression during the preschool years. Those who do not, seem to be at highest risk of serious violent behavior during adolescence and adulthood. Results from the present study indicate that children who are at highest risk of not learning to regulate physical aggression in early childhood have mothers with a history of antisocial behavior during their school years, mothers who start childbearing early and who smoke during pregnancy, and parents who have low income and have serious problems living together. All of these variables are relatively easy to measure during pregnancy. Preventive interventions should target families with high-risk profiles on these variables. Experiments with such programs have shown long-term impacts on child abuse and child antisocial behavior. However, these impacts were not observed in families with physical violence. The problem may be that the prevention programs that were provided did not specifically target the parents’ control over their physical aggression and their skills in teaching their infant not to be physically aggressive. Most intervention programs to prevent youth physical aggression have targeted schoolage children. If children normally learn not to be physically aggressive during the preschool years, then one would expect that interventions that target infants who are at high risk of chronic physical aggression would have more of an impact than interventions 5 to 10 years later, when physical aggression has become a way of life. » (p. e43)

1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« Dans le cadre de cette étude, nous effectuons la comparaison des niveaux et des modèles de développement de l’agression physique des garçons et des filles afin d’établir les similarités et les différences et d’examiner jusqu’à quel point un même niveau d’agression est lié à des facteurs étiologiques communs aux deux sexes. Ainsi, un objectif est de déceler des facteurs de risque associés aux trajectoires [où le niveau de violence dans l’agression est le plus élevé] et d’examiner la possibilité que des facteurs de risque d’origine familiale soient différemment associés aux comportements des garçons et des filles. » (p. 206)

Questions/Hypothèses :
« Dans cette étude, nous examinons les hypothèses suivantes : 1) l’existence présumée de groupes d’individus qui manifestent des modèles distincts de comportements antisociaux au cours de l’enfance; et 2) la valeur prédictive des facteurs de risque familiaux. » (p. 207)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« En 1986 et 1987, un échantillon d’enfants fréquentant une maternelle dans des écoles publiques francophones du Québec a été sélectionné. La stratégie d’échantillonnage visait à inclure dans l’étude des enfants représentatifs des différentes régions du Québec, ainsi que des régions urbaines et rurales. Lorsque les enfants étaient âgés d’environ 6 ans, le Questionnaire des comportements sociaux (QCS) a été envoyé aux parents de chacun des enfants sélectionnés. À partir des 4648 répondants, un sous-échantillon représentatif (957 garçons et 946 filles) a été sélectionné pour le suivi longitudinal. Les parents ont répondu à des questionnaires concernant leur enfant chaque année entre la maternelle et la sixième année du primaire. » (p. 208)

Instruments :
Questionnaire des comportements sociaux (QSC)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« Plusieurs théories concernant le développement des comportements violents et antisociaux se centrent sur l’idée qu’il existe des groupes d’individus qui suivent des trajectoires distinctes et que des facteurs de risque spécifiques sont associés aux trajectoires qui débutent au cours de l’enfance. Ces théories sont pour la plupart formulées et testées auprès des hommes. Cette étude a pour objectif de modéliser le développement de comportements antisociaux chez les deux sexes et plus spécifiquement 1) de reconnaître les trajectoires développementales d’agression physique des garçons et des filles au cours de l’enfance et 2) d’examiner les variables familiales reliées à ces trajectoires. La modélisation permet d’établir quatre groupes d’enfants suivant des trajectoires développementales distinctes d’agression physique au cours de l’école primaire. Il y a presque trois fois plus de garçons que de filles sur les trajectoires les plus élevées. L’interaction entre le statut familial et la pauvreté est associée aux trajectoires qui dénotent un niveau élevé d’agression, et ce, en contrôlant le sexe. Les résultats suggèrent que les garçons et les filles qui proviennent d’une famille à la fois non intacte et pauvre sont particulièrement à risque de suivre des trajectoires élevées d’agression physique. » (p. 217)

1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« This study examines the relationship between a stressful family situation, parental divorce, and abusive behavior toward mothers. Coping strategies and family environment factors are investigated in their role as possible mediators. » (p. 216)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
778 (358 boys and 437 girls) 15-year-old adolescents

Instruments :
- Social Behavior Questionnaire (SBQ; Tremblay et al., 1991)
- Family Configuration
- Aggression-Toward-Mothers
- Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ; Folkman and Lazarus, 1988)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« This paper focuses on parental maltreatment, a rarely documented phenomenon. We prospectively examine factors that can increase the risk of abusive behavior toward mothers. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between a stressful family situation, parental divorce, and verbal and physical aggression toward mothers. We use a large Canadian sample of adolescents who have been followed since kindergarten. At age 15, we assessed verbal and physical abuse toward mothers, as reported by both mothers and their adolescents. Multinomial logit modeling revealed that parental divorce was associated with a greater risk of physical aggression directed toward mothers by adolescents. Family environment and parental coping strategies partially mediated that relationship. Mothers who divorced, and remained divorced, were at greater risk of being assaulted by their adolescent children. A positive family environment, reflecting a better parent-child relationship, partially diminished this risk. However, support-seeking behavior on the part of mothers increased the risk of abuse, concurrent with tyrannical strategies often mobilized by abusive children. » (p. 215)

1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« The overarching aim of this study was to answer the question of why boys and girls might engage in different forms of aggression and victimization. » (p. iii)
Questions/Hypothèses :
«What is the most parsimonious system of conceptualising forms of aggression and victimization? [...]
Do sex differences exist in styles of aggression of aggression and victimization, and if so, what is the nature of these differences?
(How) does family dominance structure predict children’s peer dominance status? [...]
What are the individual factors related to different types of aggression and victimization? [...]
(How) are aggression and victimization related in the present sample? » (pp. 33-37)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« Participants were 367 children (191 girls and 176 boys) from Grade 5 and 6, from five elementary schools in the Lakeshore School Board district outside of Montreal, Quebec. » (p. 38)

Instruments :
Questionnaires
Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« The overarching aim of this study was to answer the question of why boys and girls might engage in different forms of aggression and victimization. To this end, there were four major goals: (a) to determine the most parsimonious system of conceptualising forms of aggression and victimization: to examine; (b) sex differences in relational and physical aggression and victimization; (c) family and individual factors related to dominance and aggression/victimization; and (d) the association between aggression and victimization. Individual factors were within four domains: peer dominance status, self-discrepancy, self-efficacy, and social importance.
Participants were 367 5th and 6th grade, English-speaking boys and girls in suburban Montreal, Quebec. Peer-ratings of aggression and victimization as well as dominance were obtained, and participants rated their parents on dimensions of involvement and supervision. Self-ratings were obtained for actual, ideal, and ought selves regarding dominance-related characteristics; self-efficacy for aggression, conflict, and non-conflict situations, as well as outcome expectancies for aggression; and social importance for male and female dominance-related characteristics.
Results showed that, using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, two separate factors (physical and relational) emerged for aggression and victimization. Boys were rated as using more physical, and girls more relational aggression (after controlling for physical aggression). Boys received higher ratings on physical victimization (when they were also aggressive). The major findings related to the remaining goals were that the association between parenting and dominance differed for boys and girls; dominance was negatively predictive of physical, and positively predictive of relational aggression for girls; dominance was negatively predictive of victimization; actual-ideal discrepancy for male dominance-related characteristics was predictive of physical victimization for boys; self-efficacy for conflict situations was negatively related to relational and positively related to physical aggression for girls; social importance for female dominance-related characteristics was negatively predictive of physical and positively predictive of relational aggression, and; victimization was more strongly related to aggression for girls.
The results of this study may help to clarify the confusion about how to conceptualise different forms of aggression. In addition, it adds to the literature on sex differences in types of aggression by attempting to empirically test the reasons for girls’ and boys’ use of different aggressive strategies and elucidating some of the factors that are differentially predictive of aggression and victimization for boys and girls. » (p. iii)

1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« This study aimed to identify variables established early in the boy’s lives that (1) differentiated the chronic and high declining aggression groups from the more normative, low level, and moderate level declining groups and (2) discriminate the high (but) declining group from the chronic group. » (p. 390)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« The subjects in this study were part of a longitudinal study that started in the spring of 1984 [...]. To control for cultural effects, the boys were included in the longitudinal study only if both of their parents’ mother tongue was French. Thus, a homogeneous white, French-speaking sample was created. The sample was reduced to 1037 boys after applying these criteria [...] » (p. 390)

Instruments :
- Parental and Family Characteristics;
- Behavior Ratings;
- Sentence Completion Test.

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« In a prior study, we identified 4 groups following distinct developmental courses, or trajectories, of physical aggression in 1037 boys from 6 to 15 years of age in a high-risk population sample from Montreal, Quebec. Two trajectories of high aggression, a persistently high group and a high but declining group. The other 2 trajectories were a low group and a moderate declining group. This study identified early predictors of physical aggression trajectories from ages 6 to 15 years. In this study, logistic regression analysis was used to identify parental and child characteristics that distinguished trajectory group membership. For boys displaying high hyperactivity and high opposition in kindergarten, the odds of membership in the 2 high aggression groups were increased by factors of 3,0 (95% confidence interval (CI), 2,0-4,3) and 2,7 (95% CI, 19-3,8), respectively, compared with boys without these risks. Counterpart odds ratios for the risk factors of mothers’ teen-onset of parenthood and low educational attainment were 1.6 (95% CI, 1.1-2.2) and 1.8 (95% CI, 1.3-2.4), respectively. Only the maternal characteristics distinguished between the trajectory of persistently physical high aggression and the trajectory starting high but subsequently declining. For the 2 maternal risk factors combined, the odds ratio of persisting in high level physical aggression was 9.4 (95% CI, 2.9-30.4). Kindergarten boys displaying high levels of opposition and hyperactivity are at high risk of persistent physical aggression. However, among kindergarten boys who display high levels of physical aggression, only mothers’ low educational level and teenage onset of childbearing distinguish those who persist in high levels of physical aggression. » (p. 389)