Cognitive competencies and aggressive behavior: A developmental study

Abstract

A number of studies have demonstrated that increased socially related cognitive skills are associated with decreases in aggressive behavior. However, the link between aggression and intelligence or academic skills is less evident. While some research indicates that poor academic performance is related to aggression, it is unclear which components of intellectual ability and performance are critical to the management of aggressive behaviors. In two independent longitudinal studies of elementary school‐age children, the relationship among several aspects of cognitive competence and several aspects of aggressive behavior were examined. The results of the first study showed that aggressive behavior observed in kindergarten children was more closely related to academic performance in the first and second grades than to general cognitive ability (IQ). The results of the second study, a comprehensive three‐year investigation of upper elementary school‐age children, indicated that teachers' assessments of aggression and parents' ratings of cruelty were consistent over time for boys, but not for girls. The intercorrelations among aggression measures within each of the three years also revealed stable sex differences. Boys identified as aggressive in the classroom were more likely to be perceived as aggressive, cruel, and/or delinquent at home, but for girls, there was little correlation between aggression at school and in the home. The analyses relating measures of cognitive functioning to indices of aggressive behavior made clear the importance of discriminating among various facets of these psychological constructs. IQ had a negligible relationship with aggression and a weak inverse relationship to delinquency. An overall index of cognitive functioning was a somewhat more consistent negative correlate of aggression, cruelty, and delinquency, especially for boys. A similar pattern was found for the correlates of academic performance. Academic disability was strongly related to delinquency in boys, and to a lesser degree to aggression in boys. Of the several cognitively related factors that were explored, Low Need Achievement manifested the strongest and most consistent relationships with the different facets of aggression and antisocial behavior, especially in boys. The implications of these results for psychological interventions in the school are discussed.

Broad versus narrow personality traits in predicting academic performance of adolescents

“…Orpinas and Frankowski (2001) found aggression negatively related to self-reported grades among middle school students. Feshbach (1984) found aggression among primary school students negatively related to academic performance.…”

Schools and Homes in Partnership (SHIP): Long-Term Effects of a Preventive Intervention Focused on Social Behavior and Reading Skill in Early Elementary School

“…Aggressive social behavior during early childhood is a risk factor for the further development of aggressive behavior, rejection by peers, substance use, and delinquency (Biglan et al, 2004). It is also a predictor of poor school performance (Feshbach & Price, 1984). Early deficits in reading skill are predictive of later academic failure (Francis et al, 1996) as well as of depression (Kellam et al, 1994).…”

Affective Processes and Academic Achievement

“…Of the 10 symptom areas germane to depression that are enumerated in DSM-III (American Psychiatric Association, 1980), the display of dysphoric mood or anhedonia plus four of the other eight symptoms is required to meet the criterion for childhood depression (Cantwell, 1983). Feshbach and Feshbach 1337 There are a number of studies that have addressed the relation between aggression and academic competencies (Feshbach & Price, 1984;Kohn, 1968;Robins, 1966). Studies of clinical populations have yielded inconsistent findings with regard to the relation between depression and school functioning symptomatology (Brumback, Dietz-Schmidt, & Weinberg, 1977;Staton, Wilson, & Brumback, 1981).…”