CHAPTER 12

LECTURE EXTENSION

Exploring the Link between Irritable-Inattentive Behaviors and Adolescent Delinquency

As noted in the text, aggression is a highly stable personality trait that contributes to concurrent peer rejection and, over time, is linked to delinquency, academic failure, and criminality. However, recent findings indicate that not all aggressive children are rejected by peers and engage in antisocial acts. In fact, some physically aggressive children are well liked by peers despite their hostile behavior. Those children who are both aggressive and rejected by peers tend to be at a greater risk for continued social dysfunction and antisocial activity compared to children who are only aggressive (Coie et al., 1996). To explore why aggressive-rejected children are at risk for later antisocial behavior, Pope and Bierman (1999) examined the social adjustment of 145 boys first in grades 3-6 and later in grades 7-10.

As expected, aggression and withdrawal exhibited stability and were linked to peer difficulties in elementary school and in adolescence. However, these behaviors indicated greatest risk for adolescent rejection, victimization, and antisocial activity when accompanied by irritable-inattentive behaviors during elementary school. Boys who were aggressive in elementary school, but did not show irritable-inattentive behaviors, did not have the same peer difficulties as those boys who displayed an irritable-inattentive behavioral profile. Thus, these findings indicate that the pattern of irritable and inattentive behaviors plays a key role in the stability and severity of elementary school peer-relation problems and adolescent social maladjustment. The authors suggest that this is because irritable and inattentive behaviors hinder children's ability to form and maintain positive social relations and, consequently, permit aggression to be sustained. Further, the authors speculate that children who have difficulties regulating negative emotions may be especially likely to develop a harmful pattern of irritable and inattentive behaviors.

Coie, J. D., Terry, R., Lenox, K., Lochman, J., & Hyman, C. (1996). Childhood peer rejection and aggression as predictors of stable patterns of adolescent disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 697-713.

Pope, A. W., & Bierman, K. L. (1999). Predicting adolescent peer problems and antisocial activities: The relative roles of aggression and dysregulation. Developmental Psychology, 35, 335-346.

LEARNING ACTIVITY

Observing Adolescent Peer Groups

Ask students to visit a typical teenage gathering place, such as a mall, fast-food restaurant, or movie complex. Are groups large or small? Same-sex or mixed-sex? Are there differences in the ways boys and girls interact? How close do same-sex groups stand? How about mixed-sex groups? Is there anything noteworthy about group members' dress? What age differences are apparent?