NCJ Number
173368
Journal
Studies on Crime and Crime Prevention Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: 1997 Pages: 7-20
Date Published
1997
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Five hundred forty male youths in Sweden were studied regarding the relationship between both the separate and the combined occurrence of early aggressiveness and hyperactivity to later alcohol problems and criminality.
Abstract
The study was conducted as a part of the longitudinal research program, Individual Development and Adjustment. Information was collected through teacher ratings of hyperactivity and aggressiveness at age 13 and official records concerning alcohol problems and criminality. Results revealed a frequent concurrence of early aggressiveness and hyperactivity. Both early hyperactivity and aggressiveness were related to later alcohol problems and criminality. Twenty-eight percent of the youths who were both aggressive and hyperactive developed both alcohol problems and criminality before age 25, compared to 3 percent of the normal youths. Findings indicated the importance of considering the overlap as well as the separate occurrence of adjustment problems in a developmental perspective. Findings also underscored the need to understand antisocial developmental processes that do not include aggressiveness and hyperactivity as childhood characteristics, as well as factors that protect a substantial proportion of the at-risk youths from later alcohol problems, criminality, or both. Figures, tables, and 50 references (Author abstract modified)