Testosterone and aggression in children.

OBJECTIVE: A link between serum testosterone and aggressive behavior, which has been demonstrated in numerous animal studies and suggested in several studies of adult men, has never been investigated in children before the time of puberty. METHOD: We measured serum testosterone, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) in 18 highly aggressive prepubertal boys, ages 4 to 10, hospitalized for violent or unmanageable behavior at a state children's psychiatric facility in New York City (the Bronx). We compared them with a group of age and race matched controls from the same demographic area, screened negative for aggressive behavior problems. All the aggressive subjects met DSM-III-R criteria for conduct disorder and scored higher than the 98th percentile on the aggression subscale of the Child Behavior Checklist (mean T = 80 for the group). RESULTS: There were no significant differences between aggressive and nonaggressive children for T, SHBG, DHEA, DHEAS, or ratios of combinations of these variables. CONCLUSIONS: These findings raise questions about inferences from adult studies that testosterone may play a causal role in the development of human aggression. Testosterone does not appear to be a useful biological marker for aggressivity in early childhood.

Life style and patterns of health and social behavior in high-risk adolescents.

This article examines the life style of young people aged 14 to 19 years to describe the interrelations among social and health-related modes of behavior. The data were derived from a national survey, conducted from 1984 to 1986, of 2,787 respondents using consolidated health services for high-risk youths. A broad range of health habits, risk behaviors, and social activities are examined, including leisure activities, social relations, sexual behavior, substance use behavior, violent social behavior, seat belt use, dental hygiene, sleep behavior, weight, and preventive medical care. Factor analysis and multidimensional scaling are used to determine the empirical patterns among these behaviors. The analyses show two major modes of behavior, health-promoting and health-compromising, while a third pattern can be interpreted as group or social activity. Implications of these life-style distinctions are discussed in relation to health promotion.

Youth exposure to violence: prevalence, risks, and consequences.

Recent empirical work on the distribution, determinants, and consequences of children and adolescents' witnessing of community violence are reviewed. Major findings across studies indicate that males, ethnic minorities, and urban residents are at increased risk for witnessing violence, and that higher rates of PTSD, depression, distress, aggression, and externalizing behavior disturbances are reported among those who witness violence. Degree of family conflict, domestic violence, and family support were demonstrated to modify the impact of exposure to violence. Research and policy recommendations are offered.

Assessing exposure to violence using multiple informants: application of hierarchical linear model.

The present study assesses the effects of demographic risk factors on children's exposure to violence (ETV) and how these effects vary by informants. Data on exposure to violence of 9-, 12-, and 15-year-olds were collected from both child participants (N = 1880) and parents (N = 1776), as part of the assessment of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). A two-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) with multivariate outcomes was employed to analyze information obtained from these two different groups of informants. The findings indicate that parents generally report less ETV than do their children and that associations of age, gender, and parent education with ETV are stronger in the self-reports than in the parent reports. The findings support a multivariate approach when information obtained from different sources is being integrated. The application of HLM allows an assessment of interactions between risk factors and informants and uses all available data, including data from one informant when data from the other informant is missing.

Assessing exposure to violence in urban youth.

This study reports on the development of a structured interview, My Exposure to Violence (My ETV), that was designed to assess child and youth exposure to violence. Eighty participants between the ages of 9 and 24 were assessed. Data from My ETV were fit to a Rasch model for rating scales, a technique that generates interval level measures and allows the characterization of both chronic and acute exposure. Results indicated that the fit statistics for six scales, covering both lifetime and past year victimization, witnessing of violence, and total exposure, were all good. These scales were found to have high internal consistency (r = .68 to .93) and test-retest reliability (r = .75 to .94). Evidence of construct validity was provided by the item analysis, which revealed a theoretically sensible ordering of item extremity, and also by analysis of bivariate associations. As expected, younger subjects generally reported less exposure to violence than did older subjects, males reported more exposure than did females, African-American subjects reported higher levels of exposure than did White subjects, violent offenders reported more exposure than did non-offenders, and those living in high crime areas reported more exposure than did those residing in low crime areas. Future areas of investigation and the potential contribution to studies of antisocial behavior and post-traumatic stress disorder are discussed.