Social Information Processing and Aggressive Behavior in Early Childhood: A Brazilian Birth Cohort Study

Abstract

Child aggressive behavior is normative in early childhood and generally declines through development. However, persistent aggression from ages 2 to 3 years is associated with social and health problems, including violence, into adulthood. An important theoretical model proposed by Crick and Dodge (1994) states that difficulties processing social information is implicated in persistent aggression from the preschool period onward. This study aimed to investigate the influence of social information processing (SIP) in early childhood in a large Brazilian birth cohort, accounting for other social, family, and child factors. We used data on 3,532 children in a population-based birth cohort study in Pelotas City, Brazil. SIP was measured at age 4 years using the Social Information Processing Interview – Preschool Version instrument – a structured interview with children – from which three variables were derived: hostile attribution bias, aggressive response generation, and a competent assessment score. Aggressive behavior was measured using the Etude Longitudinale du Development des Enfants du Quebec questionnaire completed by mothers at age 6 to 7. A range of child, mother, family, and community factors were measured as possible confounders between birth and age 4 years. In crude analyses, both aggressive response generation and competent assessment, but not hostile intent attribution, were associated with increases in later child aggressive behavior. The relationship between SIP and child aggression was confounded by multiple environmental factors such as community violence, maternal education, family income, parental antisocial behavior, maternal hostile attribution bias, maternal depression, and coercive parenting, as well as child factors such as sex and language development. After adjusting for confounders, only aggressive response generation remained associated with later child aggression. In this Brazilian context, aggressive response generation was the only significant aspect of SIP longitudinally associated with child aggression. Other psychosocial factors showing strong associations with child aggression in this setting require further research to identify the most appropriate targets for early preventive interventions.