Influence of social context on early aggression

描述（由申请人提供）：儿童和青少年的反社会和攻击性行为是一个国家公认的公共卫生问题。从社会学习理论的角度来看，研究表明，早期的攻击性行为是通过负强化机制学习的，这是一个强制性的家庭过程，其中主要的社会化代理人是父母。目前还不清楚当孩子进入学前环境时，发生了什么特定的社会过程并开始调节攻击行为。据推测，反复表现出的攻击性行为会影响成年人的行为方式（即，教师）和同伴对攻击性儿童作出反应并与之互动。然而，在学前教育环境中教师和同伴互动的相对影响还没有得到很好的理解。 一个样本（N=72）的学龄前儿童的特点是高侵略者将随机选择三个城市替代学校服务的幼儿有严重的行为问题。采用重复测量纵向设计，每月收集所有受试者的标准化直接观察数据。将采用受试者内滞后序贯分析，以逐阶段为基础确定攻击行为与社会后果之间的关联程度。动态协变量分析将用于测试受害者反应的影响（即，交互攻击），受害者的性别，以及教师反应性的变化的攻击者的性别。为了测试教师反应度的变化对基本攻击率随时间变化的影响，将使用纵向分层线性模型（HLM）。需要进行纵向研究，以确定早期模式的高速率攻击在学前班教室是如何影响社会背景。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Antisocial and aggressive behavior among children and youth is a nationally recognized public health problem. From a social learning theory perspective, research suggests that early aggressive behavior is learned through negative reinforcement mechanisms underlying a coercive family process in which the principal socialization agent is the parent. It is unclear what specific social processes occur and come to regulate aggressive behavior when the child enters the preschool environment. Presumably, repeated displays of aggressive acts affect the way adults (i.e., teachers) and peers respond to and interact with the aggressive child. However, the relative effects of teacher and peer interactions in preschool environments are not well understood. A sample (N=72) of preschool children characterized as high aggressors will be randomly selected from three urban alternative schools serving young children with severe behavior problems. Using a repeated measures longitudinal design, standardized direct-observation data will be collected monthly for all subjects. Within-subject lag sequential analysis will be used to determine the magnitude of association between aggressive behavior and social consequences on a session-by-session basis. A dynamic covariate analysis will be used to test the effects of the victim's response (i.e., reciprocated aggression), the sex of the victim, and the sex of the aggressor on changes in teacher responsivity. To test the effects of changes in teacher responsivity on changes in the base rate of aggression over time, longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) will be used. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine how early patterns of high-rate aggression in preschool classrooms is influenced by social context.