THE EFFECT OF THE LEVEL OF AGGRESSION IN THE FIRST-GRADE CLASSROOM ONTHE COURSE AND MALLEABILITY OF AGGRESSIVE-BEHAVIOR INTO MIDDLE SCHOOL

This paper is on the influences of the classroom context on thr course and malleability of aggressive behavior from entrance into first grad e through the transition into middle school. Nineteen public elementar y schools participated in developmental epidemiologically based preven tive trials in first and second grades, one of which was directed at r educing aggressive, disruptive behavior. At thr start of first grade, schools and teachers were randomly assigned to intervention or control conditions. Children within each school were assigned sequentially to classrooms from alphabetized lists, followed by checking to insure ba lanced assignment based on kindergarten behavior. Despite these proced ures, by the end of first quarter, classrooms within schools differed markedly in levels of aggressive behavior. Children were followed thro ugh sixth grade, where their aggressive behavior was rated by middle s chool teachers. Strong interactive effects were found on he risk of br ing highly aggressive in middle school between the level of aggressive behavior in the first grade classrooms and each boy's own level of ag gressive, disruptive behavior in first grade. The more aggressive firs t grade boys who were in higher aggressive first grade classrooms were at markedly increased risk, compared both to the median first grade b oys, and compared to aggressive males in lower aggressive first grade classrooms. Boys were already behaving more aggressively than girls in first grade; and no similar classroom aggression effect was found amo ng girls, although girls' own aggressive behavior did place them at in creased risk. The preventive intervention effect, already reported els ewhere to reduce aggressive behavior among the more aggressive males, appeared to do so by reducing high levels of classroom aggression. Fir st grade males' own poverty level was associated with higher risk of b eing more aggressive, disruptive in first grade, and thereby increased their vulnerability to classroom level of aggression. Both boys and g irls in schools in poor communities were at increased risk of bring hi ghly aggressive in middle school regardless of their levels of aggress ive behavior in first grade. These results are discussed in terms of l ife course/social field theory as applied to thr role of contextual in fluences on the development and etiology of severe aggressive behavior .