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Biomedical subjects

R E Tremblay

Publications and source records attributed to R E Tremblay.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1997

Anxiety, antisocial behavior, and heart rate regulation in adolescent males.

We explored relationships between anxiety and antisocial behavior and autonomic heart rate regulation in a homogenous sample (N = 175) of 15-year-old males. Measures of anxiety and antisocial behavior were obtained at yearly intervals over a period of 4-6 years. Components of heart rate variability associated with postural (sympathetic) and respiratory (vagal) change and transfer of respiratory to heart rate variability were estimated at age 15 using spectral analytic techniques. Anxiety and antisocial behavior were predictably related to enhanced and diminished levels of mean heart rate, respectively. Anxiety was also predictably related to enhanced sympathetic mediation of phasic postural effects on heart rate. Antisocial behavior was unexpectedly related to disruption of vagally mediated, phasic respiratory effects on heart rate. Anxiety and antisocial behavior showed distinct relationships to heart rate, and to the autonomically mediated components of heart rate variability from postural and respiratory sources. Spectral analytic techniques helped elucidate these unique regulatory patterns, suggesting utility for future research in this area.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Behavioural development in children of divorce and remarriage.

We employed an autoregressive modelling technique with data from the Québec Longitudinal Study to prospectively examine the developmental impact of family transition on behaviour while controlling for predivorce and preremarriage effects. Teachers rated children's anxious, hyperactive, physically aggressive, oppositional, and prosocial behaviour every 2 years from kindergarten through to the end of elementary school. Once individual and parental characteristics and antecedent family events were controlled, children who experienced parental divorce before age 6 exhibited comparatively more behavioural disturbance than their peers whose parents divorced later. With the exception of a protective effect on hyperactive behaviour, remarriage did not have a significant impact on children's behaviour when the legacy of divorce was controlled. Although the results suggest that children of divorced parents show difficulty in many areas of functioning, the effects of family transition on behavioural development were dependent on the child's age and the specific behavioural dimension assessed. Compared to other points in development, early childhood divorce was associated with long-term increases in anxious, hyperactive, and oppositional behaviour during later childhood. The effects of divorce on children's fighting were short-lived. Unlike previous prospective studies that suggest predivorce effects, we did not observe behavioural disturbance prior to divorce or remarriage.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1997

The impact of paternal alcoholism and maternal social position on boys' school adjustment, pubertal maturation and sexual behavior: a test of two competing hypotheses.

Two competing hypotheses concerning the effects of stressful environments on the onset of puberty were tested using longitudinal data for a sample of boys from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Paternal alcoholism and maternal social position were used as indicators of family stress. School placement was monitored from school entry to 14 years of age. Teachers rated the boys' disruptive and anxious behaviors, while the boys reported on parenting behaviors at 10 years of age. Pubertal maturation, age of first sexual intercourse and sexual behavior were assessed between 11 and 14 years of age. The prepubertal data indicated that boys with an alcoholic father, or a mother from a low social position, were more stressed and had more behavior problems: the boys with alcoholic fathers perceived their parents as being more punitive, and as setting fewer rules concerning their behavior; those who had at least one maladjusted parent were more often placed out of an age-appropriate regular classroom, and were rated more disruptive and more anxious by their teachers. Paradoxically, the results for the onset of puberty gave support to the two rival hypotheses. Paternal alcoholism led to a delay of male pubertal onset, as suggested by the hypothesis that stress activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and inhibits the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. However, sons of alcoholic fathers had more frequent sexual intercourse and more sexual partners, as suggested by the evolutionary theory of socialization. High maternal social position acted as a protective factor for school placement of boys with an alcoholic father. These results challenged a key hypothesis of the evolutionary theory of socialization for males. They indicated that the link between childhood family environment, behavior development, pubertal maturation and sexual promiscuity are more complex than anticipated.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Dispositional predictors of problem gambling in male adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the possible relationship between impulsivity in early adolescence and gambler status in late adolescence. METHOD: Impulsivity measures consisting of self-reports and teacher ratings were gathered from 754 boys in early adolescence, and their gambling status in late adolescence was assessed with a self-report measure. RESULTS: On both measures of impulsivity, nongamblers had the lowest scores, recreational gamblers had the next higher scores, low problem gamblers had still higher scores, and high problem gamblers had the highest scores. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the DSM-IV classification of problem gambling as a deficit in impulse control.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Mother-son interactions in disruptive and nondisruptive adolescent sons of male alcoholics and controls.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of the study was to describe mother-son relations in adolescent sons of male alcoholics. METHOD: Eighty-two mother-son dyads were observed interacting in a laboratory setting. They were subdivided into four groups: sons of male alcoholics (SOMAs) with and without behavioral problems, boys who were not SOMAs but had behavioral problems, and controls. Disruptive boys were included and distinguished from SOMAs because while there is often co-occurrence of these two problems they are not always found in the same individual. RESULTS: It was found that the biological mothers of the disruptive boys were less supportive and nurturing of their sons than were the other mothers. They were also rated as less mature, more anxious, and less confident in themselves as parents. There were no significant findings for the SOMAs or their mothers, whose interactions resembled the control group. CONCLUSIONS: It is possible that sons of male alcoholics' differences may be due to the disruptiveness of the boys rather than to their family alcoholic status per se.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Disruptiveness, friends' characteristics, and delinquency in early adolescence: a test of two competing models of development.

This study tested 2 competing models of friends' influence on the development of delinquency in disruptive boys. In so doing, we examined whether highly disruptive, moderately disruptive, moderately conforming, and highly conforming boys' delinquency increased or decreased depending on their friends' characteristics. A sample of 868 boys was classified into the 4 groups according to teacher ratings at ages 11 and 12. Each group was then subdivided by mutual friends' peer-rated aggressiveness-disturbance at the same ages: aggressive-disturbing friends, average friends, nonaggressive-nondisturbing friends, and no friends. Subgroups were next compared on self-reported delinquency at age 13 while controlling for average self-reported delinquency and socioeconomic variables at ages 11 and 12. Results indicate that moderately disruptive boys with aggressive-disturbing friends were more delinquent at age 13 than other subgroups of moderately disruptive boys. Highly disruptive and conforming boys, however, were unaffected by their friends' characteristics. We conclude that the results partially support each theoretical model, suggesting that both individual characteristics and deviant peer association might play causal roles.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Personal and familial characteristics of resilient sons of male alcoholics.

This study compared sons of male alcoholics (SOMAs) who had no problems with those who were abusing substances, those who had school problems, those who were delinquent and those who were multiproblem. Corresponding groups of non-SOMAs were also included. Groups were compared at ages 6, 10, 12 and 14 years on teacher- and peer-rated aggressiveness, hyperactivity, inattention, anxiety and prosociality; parent-rated temperament; parents' disciplinary practices; school performance; family socio-economic status; self-reported substance (ab)use and delinquency; and school performance (from school records). Differences between SOMAs and non-SOMAs were small. According to teachers and peers, no problem SOMAs and non-SOMAs were less aggressive-oppositional, inattentive and hyperactive than problem SOMAs and non-SOMAs. These effects differed as a function of age, however. Also, no problem SOMAs and non-SOMAs performed better in school than boys in the problem groups. We discuss the relevance of these findings for identifying factors that render children resilient and for early screening to select truly at risk SOMAs for prevention programs.

Achievement↗
PubMed1996

Male testosterone linked to high social dominance but low physical aggression in early adolescence.

BACKGROUND: The association of male pubertal testosterone with social dominance and physical aggression was studied in a population sample of boys followed from age 6 to 13 years to understand the origin of the links between violent behavior and gonadal hormones. METHOD: Physical aggression was assessed from the end of kindergarten to the end of elementary school by teachers and peers (aged 6 to 12 years). Social dominance and testosterone levels were assessed at 13 years of age during a 1-day visit to a laboratory with four unfamiliar peers. RESULTS: Boys perceived as socially dominant by unfamiliar peers were found to have concurrently higher levels of testosterone than boys perceived as less socially dominant. In contrast, boys who had a history of high physical aggression, from age 6 to 12, were found to have lower testosterone levels at age 13 compared with boys with no history of high physical aggression. The former were also failing in school and were unpopular with their peers. CONCLUSIONS: Both concurrent and longitudinal analyses indicated that testosterone levels were positively associated with social success rather than with physical aggression. High testosterone levels in adolescent boys may thus be regarded as a marker of social success in a given context, rather than of social maladjustment as suggested in previous studies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

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 aggression, executive functioning, anxiety, and family adversity had been assessed longitudinally formed three groups who differed in stability of physical aggression: stable, unstable, and non-aggressive. Stable aggressives were the least pain sensitive, whereas unstable aggressives were the most pain sensitive. While at low levels of executive functioning 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 anxiety were associated strongly with pain sensitivity in unstable aggressives. 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 adversity. The differences in pain sensitivity between the groups may be motivationally important to the frequency and type of aggression.

Aggression↗
PubMed1995

Kindergarten predictors of boys' stable behavior problems at the end of elementary school.

This study predicted stable social maladjustments of ages 10, 11, and 12 from teacher behavioral ratings in kindergarten and a measure of family demographics. Kindergarten teachers rated 1,034 boys on hyperactivity, aggression, inattention, anxiety-withdrawal, and prosocial behavior. Sociodemographic information was collected from the parents. At ages 10, 11, and 12, teacher, parent, peer, and self-report behavior ratings were collected on 743 boys. School achievement was documented from school records. Boys whose average scores on each of the five behavioral ratings across ages 10, 11, and 12 were above the 90th percentile according to at least two informants were defined as having stable behavioral problems. From teacher ratings collected in kindergarten and family demographics, logistic regression analyses predicted stable social maladjustment. For each negative outcome there was a unique set of predictors. The results are discussed with reference to the early identification of children who are at risk.

Achievement↗
PubMed1995

Interactional processes in families with disruptive boys: patterns of direct and indirect influence.

Patterns of direct and indirect influence were investigated in interactions among 44 families with disruptive boys. Positive and negative behaviors were assessed for spouses and parent-child dyads, in different laboratory situations. For direct or reciprocal influence, positive behaviors in the father-child dyads were positively correlated; mothers' positive behaviors were positively correlated with boys' negative behaviors, suggesting an unexpected pattern of "inverse reciprocity." For indirect influences, the following associations were found: Fathers' negative behaviors toward their children predicted the children's negative behaviors toward their mothers, and mothers' negative behaviors toward their children predicted the children's negative behaviors toward their fathers, suggesting a form of setting event or displaced behavior pattern. The children's negative behaviors toward their mothers correlated with the fathers' behaviors toward the mothers, suggesting a modeling pattern. These indirect paths underline the relevance of taking into account family interlocked relationships when studying child disruptiveness.

Acting Out↗
PubMed1995

Cognitive and neuropsychological characteristics of physically aggressive boys.

Cognitive-neuropsychological tests were given to adolescent boys (N = 177) to investigate processes associated with physical aggression. Factor analysis yielded 4 factors representing verbal learning, incidental spatial learning, tactile-lateral ability, and executive functions. Physical aggression was assessed at ages 6, 10, 11, and 12, and 3 groups were created: stable aggressive, unstable aggressive, and nonaggressive. The authors found main effects for only the executive functions factor even when other factors were used as additional covariates in a step-down analysis; nonaggressive boys performed better than stable and unstable aggressive boys. The covariates family adversity and anxiety were both related only to the verbal learning factor. This study highlights the importance of deficits in executive function in the expression of physical aggression relative to other cognitive-neuropsychological functions.

Aggression↗
PubMed1995

A bimodal preventive intervention for disruptive kindergarten boys: its impact through mid-adolescence.

Disruptive kindergarten boys from inner-city low socioeconomic neighborhood schools were randomly allocated to a preventive intervention and control condition. The 2-year prevention program included a home-based parent training component and a school-based social skills training component. Participants were followed up to mid-adolescence. Results indicated that a significantly greater percentage of treated boys remained in an age-appropriate regular classroom up to the end of elementary school and that the treated boys reported significantly less delinquent behaviors at yearly assessments from 10 to 15 years old, compared with controls. The preventive intervention appeared to have a significant long-term impact on the social development of the disruptive kindergarten boys. Earlier and more intensive intervention may be necessary for some cases, whereas for all disruptive boys, booster sessions between 12 and 15 years of age are recommended.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Longitudinal patterns of heart rate and fighting behavior in 9- through 12-year-old boys.

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.

Aggression↗