ARTICLE
Longitudinal Patterns of Heart Rate and Fighting Behavior in 9− through 12-Year-Old Boys

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ABSTRACT

Objective

To assess the temporal stability of heart rate and to examine its relationship with fighting behavior.

Method

Heart rate at ages 9 through 12 was compared to a composite measure of fighting behavior in three cohorts of low socioeconomic status boys (n = 138; two cohorts of boys who had been rated as having disruptive behavior problems in kindergarten and one normative cohort) while controlling for body size, pubertal status, and level of family adversity.

Results

Heart rate showed moderate stability at 1− and 2-year intervals in two of the three cohorts. The composite fighting score was related to heart rate for 11-year-old boys in the normative cohort and 12-year-old boys in one of the disruptive cohorts.

Conclusion

These data support the conclusion that there is a relationship between heart rate and aggression even within a low socioeconomic status sample.

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    This work was supported in part by grants from the John D. and Catherine P. MacArthur Foundation and the National Institute of Justice. The authors acknowledge the assistance of Steven Marcus, Hélène Boileau, and Lyse Desmarais-Gervais with data analysis and Jacqueline McGuire and Catalina Arboleda for useful comments on earlier drafts of this article.

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    Copyright © 1995 The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.