'Nature not nurture' is to blame for aggressive children
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
"Physical aggression in children is a major public problem," he said. "It is not only an indictor of aggression in adulthood, but is also leads to other behavioural problems such as alcohol and drug abuse, violent crime and continues the cycle of abusive parenting.
"Developmental studies show that infants aged three to four years old are more physically aggressive than adults," Professor Tremblay added. "We clearly see that the frequency of physical aggressions among children decrease substantially from the pre-school years to adolescence, except for a small group who use physical aggression most often throughout that period."
Professor Tremblay, a professor of paediatrics, psychiatry and psychology, will review his findings today at a lecture on the origins of aggression at the Royal Society in London.
"On the other hand, if a child lives in an environment that does not tolerate physical aggression, and rewards pro-social behaviour, it is likely that the child will acquire the habit of using means other than physical aggression to obtain what he or she wants, for expressing frustrations," he said.
"This is the case for most children. All but a very small minority are using physical aggression more often in early childhood than later on. Apparently we do not need to learn to 'aggress'. We need to learn not to 'aggress'," Professor Tremblay added.
"Identifying the factors which stop children becoming well-socialised adults should help us design preventative measures which are employed at the right time in a child's development," the Professor Tremblay said. "These should put an appropriate emphasis on the behaviour of the parents, as well as that of the child.
"Learning how not to be violent ... is dependent on both genetic and environmental factors. These range from the type of parental care a child receives to whether its mother smoked when pregnant.
"Research has shown, for example, that nicotine affects the development of areas of a baby's brain which are responsible for emotional control."
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