A Longitudinal Study of Developmental Pathways to Young Adult Violence

Hee-Soon Juon, PhD & Margaret E. Ensminger, PhD

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Introduction
Researchers have reported that adult violent behavior has important roots in childhood and adolescent conduct problems, such as early aggression or teenage delinquency and substance use. Children who display aggressive or antisocial behavior are more likely than their classmates to be arrested as adults. There are a number of risk and protective factors that may impact the developmental trajectories to later violent acts. We will focus on a variety of domains of social contexts (e.g., individual, family, and school) and how these factors influence violence. The overall aim of this study is to understand how childhood behavioral problems are associated with young adult violent criminal arrests in an epidemiologically defined cohort of African Americans followed prospectively from first grade to age 32.

Specific Aims
1) We will examine the developmental trajectories of children who vary in their early patterning of classroom behaviors. We will identify homogeneous clusters of children based on early behavioral characteristics using cluster analysis.
2) We will examine the relationships between these early patterns of behavior and adult criminal activity (e.g., violent crime, non-violent crime, self-reported criminal behavior).
3) We will examine how these early patterns of behavior influences early risk and protective factors for adult violence. Early risk factors include academic difficulties, low birth weight, and early classroom problem behavior. The protective factors include family socialization, adolescent social bonds, and family social integration.