The aim of this research is clarify the sequelae of aggressive behaviors over ontogeny and across generations. It is proposed that high levels of aggression in childhood claim multiple victims, including the perpetrators themselves. In the developmental framework and guides this work, aggressive actions are seen as salient features of correlated systems of behavior that become consolidated over time in the concrete circumstances of life. Accordingly, the analysis of these actions should not be divorced from the matrix of social actions and contexts in which they are established and maintained, including the contexts provided by social networks and familial relationships. The proposed project aims (a) to describe the developmental course of aggressive behavior and its sequelae by tracking females and males from childhood through adulthood, and (b) to determine how the trajectories of aggressive behaviors in one generation are related to developmental trajectories in the next generation. Approximately equal numbers of females and males have been observed in the Carolina Longitudinal Study (CLS) since they were in childhood--one cohort began when the children were 10 years old and in the 4th grade, the other cohort began when the participants were 13 years old and in the 7th grade. Embedded in the CLS longitudinal sample are subgroups of persons who, as children, were at high risk for aggressive and violent behavior, along with individually-matched controls. This sample of 695 individuals has remained virtually intact over 8-10 annual assessments, with minimal loss due to attrition during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood (i.e., 98% of the original subjects still participated at the end of high school). As part of an intergenerational assessment, the parents and grandparents of the subjects have been seen. The proposed research has two interrelated goals. First, we will examine the sequelae of childhood aggressive risk in women and men at 28 years of age. The areas of adaptation to e assessed include violent and nonviolent crime, victimization, health, employment, family disruption, educational attainment, domestic conflict, and parenting. We will also examine how aggressive patterns become modified, or intensified, in mid-adulthood. Second, a significant proportion (35%) of the CLS subjects have become parents. The 453 children are themselves are being tracked in intergenerational longitudinal study from infancy into adolescence. Annual, multi-method assessments permit the tracking of mediational processes in individuals, the families, and social networks across generations. A special concern is how some individuals escape the constraints of violent, aggressive behavior in their own ontogeny or in the ontogeny of their offspring.
