Subtypes of aggressive children based on parent ratings

Abstract

The existence of subtypes of aggressive children based on their parents' ratings of their aggressive behavior was examined in this study. The subjects' raw scores from the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1991) were used to perform a cluster analysis of the eight subscales of behavior. The results indicated that two distinct subtypes, or clusters, existed within this data set. Cluster 1 was composed of 23 children whose parents rated them as highly aggressive and whose means for aggressive behaviors on each of the eight subscales were above average. Cluster 2 consisted of 31 children who were rated by their parents as only average in aggressive behaviors on all eight subscales. Because all 54 subjects in this study had been designated "aggressive" by their teachers and peers, the different subtypes, which emerge from the cluster analysis question the validity of, parent ratings. These findings do implicate that subtypes of aggressive children do exist within an aggressive sample; however, these subtypes are distinguished by parent ratings of behavior alone.