Growing Up to Be Violent

Book excerpt: Growing Up to be Violent: A Longitudinal Study of the Development of Aggression deals with the study of psychosocial development concerning aggressive behavior in third-grade schoolchildren and their upbringing. The design of the study is longitudinal—a follow-up research has been made when the children reached the twelfth grade. The book explains that certain child-rearing practices and some environmental factors can be predictors of aggressive behavior during young adulthood. The text also reviews the various theories of aggression including the theory of innate aggressiveness and the social learning of aggression. The book discusses the roots of aggression, the four classes of environmental variables (instigators, punishment, identification, sociocultural variables), as well as, sex differences and perinatal complications in aggression. The book addresses the effects of television in the development of aggressive behavior: that television can incite aggression and present certain ways of practicing aggressiveness. The book points that young adults who were intelligent, popular and polite as young children have positive social position as young adults. This book can prove insightful for psychiatrists, psychologists, behavioral scientists, child educators, students or professors in psychology, and for parents of young children.