What Makes a Child Aggressive

It has been proved that abused children turn into tomorrow's aggressors. But children who are neglected before turning two years old may display increased levels of aggressive behavior between ages 4 to 8, as revealed by a study made at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and published in the journal "Pediatrics."

"Early child neglect may be as important as child abuse for predicting aggressive behavior," wrote the authors.

Neglect represents in fact about 66% of all child maltreatment cases occurring annually in the United States.

"The lack of attention devoted to the problem of neglect - the so-called 'neglect of neglect' - is a long-standing concern in the child welfare field. Despite being more common than abuse, we know relatively little about the impact of neglect on children," said co-author Jon Hussey, research assistant professor of maternal and child health in the UNC School of Public Health and a fellow at the Carolina Population Center.

Over 1,300 children from four cities and one Southern state were involved in this research coordinated by the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC). All the subjects had been maltreated or were at risk of maltreatment. The children were monitored from birth through age 8.

A child involved in the research entered in the category of the neglected if it hadn't been provided, by his parents or caregivers, with proper supervision or food, clothing and shelter, while abuse was regarded as either sexual or physical.

The child's primary caregiver assessed his/her aggressiveness, translated through arguing, cruelty to others, destruction of property, disobedience, threatening people and fighting or physically attacking others. The assessment was made when the child was 4, 6 and 8 of age.

"This isn't the first time we've seen evidence suggesting that in some circumstances, neglect can be as harmful to children as abuse. Understanding the consequences of early childhood neglect will help us plan programs and other interventions to benefit these children throughout their lives," said Hussey, who in 2006 carried out a research connecting neglect to teenage violence, depression and drug use.