Children with Behavioral and Emotional Problems: Is Their Behavior Explained Only by Complex Learning? Or Do Internal Motives have a Role?(Editorial--Introduction) (Report‪)‬

The Development of Antisocial Behavior: Coercive Interactions and Temperament As far back as 1967, Patterson, Littman, and Bricker found that aggressive behavior on the part of nursery school children resulted in positive reinforcement in nearly 80% of the incidents, (i.e. either the victim cried or gave up the toy). Thus began the work of Patterson and his colleagues in analyzing the development of antisocial behavior throughout the lifespan from a behavioral perspective. Patterson and his colleagues (1992; 2002) provided an explanation for how coercive patterns of interaction between parents and their young children constituted early training for antisocial behavior and created a foreshadowing of a life-long trajectory of problems, including: noncompliance, fighting in childhood, truancy and delinquency in adolescence, and criminal behavior, marital problems and a whole myriad of adjustment difficulties in adulthood. Patterson and his colleagues identified several variables that have consistently co-varied in research related to antisocial behavior: "social disadvantage, ineffective parental discipline, lack of parental supervision, parental use of physical punishment, academic failure, parental rejection, peer rejection, member of a deviant peer group and low 'self-esteem'" (Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992, p.10). These researchers provided evidence from retrospective accounts and many hours of observations of children with antisocial behavior and their families' interactions that antisocial behavior follows a sequence of development over time.