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Abstract
From childhood onward, non-Hispanic black and white males exhibit more behavior problems than their female counterparts, with black males having the worst behavioral outcomes overall. I use data from the Fragile Families and Child Well Being Study to investigate (1) whether the pattern of aggression among 3- and 5-year-olds mimics the pattern seen in later years, (2) whether different levels of exposure by race and gender to important determinants of aggression—neighborhood characteristics, family structure and stability and mothers’ discipline practices—can explain divergent outcomes and (3) whether gender moderates their influence, producing gaps in aggression from ages 3 to 5. I also explore the possibility that neighborhood deprivation can help explain gender gaps in aggression.
Three key findings emerge. First, at ages 3 and 5, black boys are significantly more aggressive than black girls and than whites, though only marginally more so than white boys. Patterns by neighborhood type follow suit; boys from low-resource neighborhoods exhibit the most aggression. Second, black boys and boys in low-resource neighborhoods experience more harsh parenting than their peers, while white boys and girls and boys in high-resource neighborhoods experience more nonviolent discipline. All forms of discipline associate with increases in aggression.
Third, hierarchical linear models show that child sex moderates certain influences on aggression. In the full sample of children and among black children and children in low-resource neighborhoods, family instability—having a biological or social father move into the household between the child’s birth and age 3—increases initial aggression in boys but not girls while a mother’s victimization by violence reduces aggression in girls but not boys. The disparity in these effects for boys and girls tends to dissipate with age. Though patterns differ somewhat by subgroup, discipline techniques differently influence boys and girls; physical discipline tends to increase aggression more in girls while psychological aggression and nonviolent discipline increase aggression more in boys. Taking results together, higher levels of aggression among black boys than their peers may result from both greater exposure to risk factors for aggression (harsh parenting) and an increased sensitivity to household instability at an early age.
