Desarrollo Moral y social DesDe la PriMera infancia:

Problemas de Adaptación y Prevención de la Violencia

Richard E. TremblayUniversity of Montreal

University College Dublin

21

Statistics Canada (2001)

Adolphe Quetelet

1831

Eisner, 2003

Page 31: “The majority of young people who become violent are adolescent-limited offenders who, in fact, show little or no evidence of high levels of aggression or other problem behaviours during their childhood(3).”

(3): Youth violence: a report of the Surgeon general. Washington, DC United States Department of Health and Human Services. 2001.

Panel on the Understanding and Control of Violent Behavior

"Modern Psychological perspectives emphasize that aggressive and violent behaviors are learned responses to frustration, that they can also be learned as instruments for achieving goals, and that the learning occurs by observing models of such behavior. Such models may be observed in the family, among peers, elsewhere in the neighborhood, through the mass media ...".

USA National Academy of SciencesReiss and Roth, 1993 p.7

Subjects : 1,037 boys from low SES neighborhoods

Assessment Ages : 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 23, 28

Sources : Teachers, peers, parents, self, official files.Direct Observation in home, at school, in laboratory

Experiment : Parent and child training (age 7-9 years) for aggressive boys in kindergarten (randomized)

The Montreal Longitudinal-Experimental Study

Brame et al., 2001

0

1

2

3

4

5

6 10 11 12 13 14 15

Âge

Ag

res

siv

ité

ph

ys

iqu

e

Low-pred. Mod. desister-pred. High desister-pred. Chronic-predGroup 4 (4%)Group 2 (53%) Group 3 (28%)Group 1 (14%)

PHYSICAL AGGRESSION TRAJECTORIES(Nagin & Tremblay, 1999)

Loeber et al., 2005

Copyright restrictions may apply.

Barker, E. D. et al. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2007;64:592-599.

Trajectories for theft (12 to 31 years of age)

Violence, Theft, Executive Function

-.40

-.20

.00

.20

.40

.60

.80

1.00

Low Theft Medium Theft Increasing Theft High Theft

Mea

n S

tan

dar

diz

ed T

MT

-B

High Violence Low Violence

Barker et al., 2007, AGP

Total court recorded infractionsbefore 18 years of age

.060.5

2.2

7.2

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Low Moderate High Chronic

Physical aggression trajectory (6-15 years)

Nagin & Tremblay (1999)

75,8%

62,5%

27,5%

3,3%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Never Low High Chronic

HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA (%)

ELEM Boys on YOA (12-17 years)

Total 15% (113 / 779)

• Without Supervision 42%

• With Supervision 32%

• With Placement 26%

Criminal Records – ELEM Boys18-24 years

Total 17.6% (137/779)

Violence 17.9%

Property 31.2%

Drugs 16.4%

Others 34.3%

Court Intervention 13-17 years Violence condemnation 18-24 years

(After controling for confounding variables)

Predictors OR

Court Intervention +9

• Without Supervision +3

• With Supervision +16

• Placement +51

Childhood ChronicPhysical

Aggression

Tobacco

Alcohol

Drugs

Early Sex

Violence

Unemployement

Poverty

School Failure

Depression

Page 31: “The majority of young people who become violent are adolescent-limited offenders who, in fact, show little or no evidence of high levels of aggression or other problem behaviours during their childhood(3).”

(3): Youth violence: a report of the Surgeon general. Washington, DC United States Department of Health and Human Services. 2001.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6 10 11 12 13 14 15

Âge

Ag

res

siv

ité

ph

ys

iqu

e

Low-pred. Mod. desister-pred. High desister-pred. Chronic-predGroup 4 (4%)Group 2 (53%) Group 3 (28%)Group 1 (14%)

PHYSICAL AGGRESSION TRAJECTORIES(Nagin & Tremblay, 1999)

He who considers things in their first growth and origin...

will obtain the clearest view of them.

Aristotle, Politics, Book 1 chap 2

Picasso

Subjets : 2,223 children representing births in 1997-98 (twins: 500 pairs)

Age at evaluations : 5, 17, 30, 42 months, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years

Sources of info : Parents, child care provider, teachers, peers, children,

official files. Observations at home,

in day care, at school, in the laboratory.

Québec Longitudinal Study of Children

Domains : Physical, emotional, cognitive, social development

Physical Aggression Trajectories(17 to 60 months)

Côté et al., 2007, AGP

Physical Aggression Trajectories From 1.5 and 17 years

N=2000QLSCD

N=10 000NLSCY

Côté et al. (2007) Côté et al. (2006) Lacourse et al. (2003)

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

11 12 14 15 16 17

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Physi

cal ag

gressi

on sc

ore

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

1.5 2.5 3.5 4.5 6.0

N=1000MLES

delinquency

accidents

Depression

Obesity

Drug abuse

School drop-out

Unemployment

Poverty

Pregnancy Infancy

0-2 y.

Pre-K.

3-4 y.

Ado-Adult

13-30 y.

ENVIRONMENT

GENOTYPE

Neighborhood Physical and Social Characteristics

Risk Factors

Proximal

Distal

Bio-Psy-socio Development Trajectories

Additive interactive

Brain DevelopmentGene Expression

PeersExposition increases

With age

ParentsExposition decreases

with age

Genes-Environment-Brain-Behaviour

School

5-12 y.

Targeted genes

MAOA5-HTT

5-HT1A5-HT1B5-HT2BTPH2

Dionne et al., 2003

A C E

82% 0% 18%

A C E

82% 0% 18%

Intraclass MZ and DZ correlations and ACE Modelfor Physical Aggression and Expressive Vocabulary at 18 Months

ChronicPhysical

Aggression

Young mother

Low education

Single parent

Smoke

Mother behav. prob.

Poverty

Pregnancy Birth - 6 M.

Obstetrical complic.

Mother coercive

Poor Marital Relat.

Mother depressive

12 M. +

27 June 2004

5’ 3’

Low LG High LG

L1 H1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

5’ 3’

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Methylation of rRNA promoter from whole blood DNA

Upstream Control Element(-186 - -50)

Core Promoter(-50 - +20)

High

Legend: :CG methylated :CG unmethylated :CG ?

UCE

CP

A

B

C

D

MediumUCE

CP

E

I

J

Provençal et al., 2006

Causes for Failure to Learn Alternatives to Physical Aggression in EC

-Genome characteristics-Gene expression triggered by prenatal environment-Gene expression triggered by post-natal environment- Learning experiences provided by the environment

What are the consequences for preventive interventions?

Development of Brain Structures and Functions

Preventive Interventions -9m to 5yParent and Surrogate Parent Support

• Mother’s pregnancy life style• Parenting sensitivity and care• Language development• Executive function development• Play-fighting• Discipline• Prosocial skills• Nutrition

Evidence of ECD Services Effects

Support to ParentingOlds et al., 1998 (Pregnancy to 24 m.)

Antisocial behavior at 15 years of age.

Mednick et al., 1987 (Birth +)

Antisocial behavior up to adulthood

Support to Parenting and Day CareCampbell et al., 2001 (12 to 60 m.)

Cognitive development up to adulthood

Schweinhart et al., 2006 (36 to 48 m.)

Antisocial behavior 18 to 40 years of age.

Raine et al., 2001 (36 to 60 months)

CNS arousal and orienting at 11 years of age

Cameiro & Heckman, 2003

Conclusions1. Humans do not learn to physically

aggress, they learn not to.

2. Chronic physical aggression is not something that starts in adolescence(idem for vandalism, theft, violation of rules?)

3. Environmental effects on physical aggression, like genetic effects, are strongly intergenerational.

Conclusions (ctnd)

3. Learning not to physically aggress depends on how well the parents learned during their own childhood

4. Environmental influences on a child’s use of physical aggression probably start at the moment of conception.

5. If this is true, prevention of chronic physical aggression should probably start at conception, at the latest.

Conclusions (ctnd)

6. The earlier we start helping disruptive children the better

7. Placing disruptive children and adolescents together simply increases the problem.

8. Young girls become mothers, their socialisation should be THE PRIORITY

9. Ability to inhibit physical aggression is a thin veneer that can easily break under pressure, hence the importance of situational prevention.

Global ECD Conclusions

1. The Human Brain is the organ that makes us civilized humans

2. The Human Brain is like a pension fund, the earlier we invest the greater the returns

3. Our main Brain Investment Plan dates back to the mid 19th century: Free universal education starting at 5-7 years of age

Global ECD Conclusions

4. The large majority of children do not have access to effective early childhood development services.

5. Best practices usually have the following characteristics: start early, intense, long lasting, comprehensive, well trained staff.

6. To reduce inequalities in education, health, and well-being we must start by offering effective services to the less privileged from pregnancy onwards.

Unless you give infants everything they want,

they cry and get angry, they even beat their own

parents …Thus an evil man is rather

like a sturdy boy, or a man of childish mind, and evil is simply want of

reason at an age when it normally

accrues to men by nature

governed by discipline and experience of harm.

Thomas Hobbes,On the Citizen,

1647

We should be especially careful with our children during their first years. For at this stage their behaviour is guided by instinct more than by reason, so that they are inclined equally to good and evil –more to the latter perhaps – and it is always easier to forget good habits than to unlearn bad ones. This truth was already known to pagan philosophers and caused them great perplexity.

Erasmus, 1529

Su Nombre es Hoy (His Name is Today)

“We are guilty of many errors and many faults,

but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made, and his senses are being developed. To him we cannot answer ‘Tomorrow,’ his name is today.”

Gabriela Mistral

Mucho Gracias

Danke Schön