Aggressive children are less likely to become violent criminals or psychiatrically troubled adults if they receive early intervention, according to a new study.
Researchers at Duke, Pennsylvania State and Vanderbilt universities and the University of Washington found that working with aggressive children prevents some from becoming violent, criminal adults.
The findings are based on the Fast Track Project in the US that tests the long-term effect of environment on children's development through a clinical trial.
Beginning in 1991, the researchers screened nearly 10,000 5-year-old children in Durham, Nashville, Seattle and rural Pennsylvania for aggressive behaviour problems, identifying those who were at highest risk of growing up to become violent, antisocial adults.
Nearly 900 children were deemed at high risk, and of those, half were randomly assigned to receive the Fast Track intervention, while the other half were assigned to a control group.
Participating children and their families received an array of interventions at school and at home.
Nineteen years later, the authors found that Fast Track participants at age 25 had fewer convictions for violent and drug-related crimes, lower rates of serious substance abuse, lower rates of risky sexual behaviour and fewer psychiatric problems than the control group.
"We can prevent serious violence and psychopathology among the group of children who are highest-risk," said Duke's Kenneth Dodge.
"That's the essential finding from this study. It provides the strongest evidence yet that, far from being doomed from an early age, at-risk children can be helped to live productive lives," Dodge said.
The programme's positive effects held true across four different sites around the country, among both males and females and among both white and African-American children.
From first through 10th grade, the Fast Track children received reading tutoring and specialised intervention aimed at improving self-control and social-cognitive skills.
Parents learned problem-solving skills through home visits and parent training groups.
When programme participants turned 25, researchers reviewed court records and conducted interviews with participants and control group members, as well as individuals who knew the participants well.
Along with fewer criminal convictions, Fast Track participants had lower rates of antisocial personality disorder and avoidant personality disorder, lower rates of risky sexual behaviour and lower rates of harsh parenting.
The study appears in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
