Country, Sex, and Parent Occupational Status: Moderators of the Continuity of Aggression from Childhood to Adulthood

摘要

Using data from two American and one Finnish long-term longitudinal studies, we examinedcontinuity of general aggression from age 8 to physical aggression in early adulthood (age 21–30)and whether continuity of aggression differed by country, sex, and parent occupational status. Inall samples, childhood aggression was assessed via peer nominations and early adulthoodaggression via self-reports. Multi-group structural equation models revealed significantcontinuity in aggression in the American samples but not in the Finnish sample. These relationsdid not differ by sex but did differ by parent occupational status: whereas there was no significantcontinuity among American children from professional family-of-origin backgrounds, there wassignificant continuity among American children from non-professional backgrounds.