The goal in this research is to clarify the developmental trajectories and cross-generational transmission of social behavior, with a special focus upon aggressive and antisocial patterns. The original longitudinal subjects, now adults, have been observed since their own childhood (one cohort began when the children were in the 4th grade, the other cohort began in the 7th grade). The original sample of 695 subjects has remained virtually intact since childhood, with minimal loss due to attrition (i.e., 99% of the living subjects in the two original cohorts were seen in the 7-9th assessment waves in the 12th grade). Embedded in the original sample were subgroups of persons and matched controls who, as children, were at high risk for subsequent behavioral problems. Special attention will be given in this study to the mechanisms that permit persons to escape the cycle of assaultive, aggressive behavior in their own development and in the development of their children. The present investigation will complete an analysis of the developmental cycle from childhood to adulthood to the childhood of the next generation. This research focuses upon three significant transitions in the life course. The first is from infancy to school age. The second is the transition from childhood to adolescence and adulthood where problems of personal and social adaptation emerge full-blown. The third is the transition from one generation to the next, where problems of one generation may become reconstituted in the lives of their children, or new difficulties emerge. For certain comparisons, it will be possible to analyze adaptation in four generations. Information from the two successive generations will be supplemented by the simultaneous study of the parents and grandparents of the CLS subjects. Both person-oriented and variable-oriented parametric analyses will be employed. It is anticipated that the findings will clarify the etiology, course, and cross-generational transmission of aggressive behaviors and their developmental sequelae.
