Language and physical aggression among preschoolers: Examining gender and racial differences

Background/Objectives: Physical aggression(PA) begins to emerge during infancy with highest rates between 2-4 years of age. Rates of PA decline approximately the same time as language begins to develop. Gender differences in rates of PA are found beginning with the late preschool years. No studies have investigated the language-aggression relationship among different racial groups. This study examined gender and racial differences in the relationship between language and PA.

Methods: An economically and racially diverse sample of 278 mothers and their 4 year-old children were used for study. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test was used to assess language and physical aggression was measured using 3 items from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) aggression subscale.

Results: Higher language scores led to significantly less PA among the whole sample (r= -.15, p= .03). A significant relationship between language and PA was found for boys (r= -.24, p= .01), but not girls (r= -.04, p= .66). There was a significant relationship between language and PA among majority children (r= -.29, p= .007), but no relationship was found for minority children (r= -.08, p= .37). Examining racial differences by gender revealed a highly significant relationship among majority males (r= -.46, p= .002), but no relationship was found among minority males, nor majority or minority females.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the need to explore the PA-language relationship separately by gender and race. These findings may assist in understanding how language affects the reduction of physically aggressive behavior.