Aggressive-antisocial boys develop into physically strong young men

摘要

Young men with superior upper-body strength typically show a greater proclivity for physical aggression. The traditional interpretation is that young men calibrate their attitudes and behaviors to their physical formidability. Physical strength is thus viewed as a causal antecedent of aggressive behavior. The present study is the first to examine this phenomenon within a developmental framework. We demonstrate that males' antisocial tendencies temporally precede their physical formidability. We capitalize on the fact that physical strength is a male secondary sex characteristic. In two longitudinal cohorts of children, we estimate adolescent change in upper-body strength using the “slope” parameter from a latent growth model. Boys, but not girls, with greater antisocial tendencies in childhood attained larger increases in physical strength between the ages of 11 and 17. These results support sexual selection theory, indicating an adaptive congruence between male-typical behavioral dispositions and subsequent physical masculinization during puberty.