Children who have a good relationship with their teacher
may be protected from expressing aggression and being the target of
aggression at school. That's the key finding in a new study of Canadian
first graders that appears in the journal Child Development.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Quebec
at Montreal, Laval University, the University of Alabama, the University
of Montreal, and University College Dublin.
"Aggressive behavior in middle childhood is at least partly explained
by genetic factors, but genetic influences on behavior usually don't
operate independently of environmental influences," notes Mara Brendgen,
professor of psychology at the University of Quebec at Montreal, who
led the study.
