Environmental Factors and Genes May Influence Your Child’s Aggressive Behaviors

When our children reach school age many parents eagerly and lovingly send their little ones off to kindergarten at the local school, be it public or private. We openly trust our children to receive a quality education and learn to function in society. What many parents don’t consider prior to enrollment is the potential impact on whether or not their child may become physically or socially aggressive.

Once your child starts school they will spend more time among their peers than at home with their parents, making peers a stronger influence. Among the many things your child will learn from their peers, aggression is one of them.

Researchers from the University of Quebec at Montreal, Laval University, Concordia University and the University of Montreal conducted a study of 400 7-year old twins and their interactions with friends in the school environment (Read More).

The researchers found:

• Friends’ physical aggression interacts with genetic liability to predict children’s own aggression
• Genetic disposition to physical aggression is more likely to express itself when children are exposed to physically aggressive friends
• Social aggression seems to be directly associated with children’s own social aggression independent of a genetic disposition.
• The effects of friends’ aggression on children’s aggression only seem to occur in the context of the same type of aggression.

In short this study indicates that your sweet, kind, sharing 5-year old may only be a couple of years from aggressive behavior at the start of school. While we do our best as parents to teach our children right from wrong the results of this study offers support to the strength of peer influence.

When teaching our children we must always consider what they are being exposed to at the school level and from their peers. Knowing gives us the power to counter-influence those negative behaviors before they become a real problem.

By encouraging appropriate friends, working closely with your child’s teachers and openly discussing the day’s activities with your child you will be one step ahead of learned aggression. Teaching our children in real time is the best time and these steps can make that happen.