Co-developmental trajectories of aggression and rule-breaking from middle childhood to early adolescence: individual and environmental predictors.

Abstract

This study examined the heterogeneous co-developmental trajectories of aggression and rule-breaking from middle childhood to early adolescence, as well as how these identified, distinct trajectories related to individual and environmental predictors. A total of 1944 Chinese elementary school students in grade 4 (45.5% girls, Mage = 10.06, SD = 0.57) completed measures on five occasions across two and a half years, using six-month intervals. Findings included: (a) Parallel process latent class growth modeling revealed four distinct co-developmental trajectory groups of aggression and rule-breaking: congruent-low (84.0%); moderate-decreasing aggression and high-decreasing rule-breaking (3.8%); moderate-increasing aggression (5.9%); and moderate-increasing rule-breaking (6.3%); (b) Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that children belonging to the high risk groups were more likely to experience multiple individual and environmental difficulties. Implications for prevention of aggression and rule-breaking were discussed.