PAIN SENSITIVITY AND STABILITY OF PHYSICAL AGGRESSION IN BOYS

It is unclear whether stably aggressive boys would be characterized by high or low pain sensitivity. Adolescent boys in whom physical aggres sion, executive functioning, anxiety, and family adversity had been as sessed longitudinally formed three groups who differed in stability of physical aggression: stable, unstable, and non-aggressive. Stable agg ressives were the least pain sensitive, whereas unstable aggressives w ere the most pain sensitive. While at low levels of executive function ing pain sensitivity could not be distinguished between the aggressive groups, at high levels unstable aggressives reported even more pain, whereas stable aggressives reported even less pain. Variations in anxi ety were associated strongly with pain sensitivity in unstable aggress ives. High pain ratings were found in boys who had a moderate level of family adversity, and low pain ratings in boys with low or high adver sity. The differences in pain sensitivity between the groups may be mo tivationally important to the frequency and type of aggression. Copyri ght (C) 1996 Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry.