Funding was provided by the McCormick Tribune Foundation and the Harris Foundation.

Gender Differences and Developmental Pathways
in Early Childhood Aggression

Friday, April 15, 2005

Rubloff Auditorium at Loyola Water Tower Campus
25 East Pearson Street, Chicago, Illinois

About the Symposium

Childhood Aggression and Gender:
Boys Will Be Boys, But What About Girls?
Nicki Crick, Ph.D.

Childhood aggression has been one of the most widely studied topics in psychology during the past several decades due to its damaging consquences for children, families, schools, and society in general.  However, the majority of past investigations have failed to consider the kinds of aggressive behavior exhibited by girls.  In one attempt to address this inadequacy, researchers have identified a relational form of aggression that is more common among girls than boys and that shows significant promise for increasing our understanding of the aggressive interpersonal exchanges of girls.  Relational aggression includes such behaviors as spreading nasty rumors, giving someone the "silent treatment," excluding someone socially, or threatening to withdraw from a friendship.

Dr. Crick provided an overview of recent studies of relational aggression to (1) provide a definition of relational aggression and discuss how it differs from other forms of aggression; (2) describe how relationally aggressive behaviors change with development; (3) examine evidence of gender differences in children's use of relational aggression; (4) discuss studies of the harmful nature of relational aggression for both the aggressors and the victims.  Implications of these findings for our knowledge of children's development and intervention efforts were discussed.

Nicki Crick is director and professor at the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota.  Her research focuses on the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of relational and physical aggression and victimization across the life-span.  She is particularly interested in the role of gender in development and social-psychological adjustment.  She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and has received serveral other professional honors including the Distinguished Scienctific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology from APA, the Boyd McCandless Award from APA, a Faculty Scholars Award from the William T. Grant Foundation, and a FIRST Award from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Aggressive Behavior in Early Childhood:
Identifying Developmental and Social Pathways to Long-Term Maladjustment
Sheryl L. Olson, Ph.D.

Aggressive behavior in preschool-age children may be normal and transient or a marker of serious and long-lasting behavior problems.  How do we determine which children are at elevated risk?  Recent longitudinal studies provide clues concerning developmental pathways and processes linking early aggressive behavior to social and academic problems in the school-age years and beyond.

Dr. Olson discussed three different research perspectives that help us understand why some aggressive preschoolers persist in their problem behavior whereas others develop normally.  The first was a developmental perspective for understanding children's problem behavior in relation to disruptions in the establishment of normal self-regulatory competence and social understanding.  The second was a social risk perspective highlighting early family and peer processes that exacerbate children's vulnerability to chronic patterns of aggressive behavior.  Finally, the third was a gender differences perspective highlighting the importance of the child's sex as a moderator of early developmental pathways to persistent behavioral maladjustment.  Dr. Olson presented recent findings from her longitudinal research illustrating how all three perspectives can be integrated to inform our understanding of early risk pathways to chronic aggressive behavior.

Sheryl Olson is professor of psychology and research scientist at the Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan.  Her research has focused on identification of early developmental and social processes that are associated with risk of long-term behavioral maladjustment in toddlers and preschoolers.  She is co-editor (with Arnold Sameroff) of the forthcoming volume, Regulatory Processes in the Development of Behavior Problems: Biological, Behavioral, and Social-Ecological Interactions, to be published by Cambridge University Press.  She is director and principal investigator of the Michigan Longitudinal Study, a prospective longitudinal investigation of the development of self-regulation and social understanding in preschool-age boys and girls at elevated risk for disruptive behavior disorders.

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