Biosocial bases of aggressive and violent behavior—implications for nursing studies
Introduction
Aggressive and violent behavior are being increasingly viewed as a public health problem (Comerci, 1996; Gerbert et al., 2003) and violence prevention has become one of the most pressing issues facing our society today (Hann, 2002). While reducing aggressive and violent behavior and violence prevention are increasingly receiving international attention (Ahmad, 2004), the nursing profession has not fully acknowledged the potential role it may play in helping to reduce this major problem in society. Ironically, the nursing profession had its origins in warfare (a form of aggression and violence) over two century ago. Inspired by Florence Nightingale, nursing education and science evolved out of care for the victims of warfare, yet since then the profession has largely lost its links to violence and has not made major efforts to prevent violence. While we are living in a relatively peaceful world, the significance of violence for nursing professionals cannot be overemphasized.
This is not to say that nursing has completely ignored the victims of violence. Significant progress has been made by the nursing in the areas of domestic violence (Frost, 1999; Limandri and Tilden, 1996) and child abuse (McFarlane et al., 2000; Paavilainen et al., 2001, Paavilainen et al., 2002). While these area are mainly related to psychosocial aspect, yet within the last two decades, there has been a rapidly growing and increasingly significant body of knowledge built up on the biological bases of antisocial, aggressive, and violent behavior (Brennan et al., 1999; Caspi et al., 2002; Mednick et al., 1984; Raine 2002a; Virkkunen et al., 1995). Such research includes, among other areas, genetic studies, biochemical approaches, and brain-imaging research, a literature that has to date been little recognized in nursing science.
Why should one presume that there is a biological basis to violence that can give important clues for intervention and prevention research? Both twin and adoption studies have clearly shown that there is a genetic basis to antisocial, aggressive, and violent behavior (Mednick et al., 1984), as such, the biological context must be incorporated into any comprehensive account of violence. In addition, despite decades of attempts at psychosocial intervention for violence, there have been very few studies that show success in the long term, possibly because such studies have ignored biosocial complexities. Also, there is a growing body of empirical evidence that convincingly demonstrates some role for biological processes in shaping antisocial and violent behavior (Brennan et al., 1999; Moffitt et al., 1998).
The purpose of this paper is to emphasize one area in which nursing research/practice can make a critical societal contribution. First, recent studies on biological factors and aggressive/violent behavior will be reviewed. Second, a biopsychosocial model of aggressive and violent behavior of relevance to nursing will be outlined which integrates biological with social research. Third, implications for nursing research and practice will be briefly discussed. In addition, the following review will not extensively cover all biological factors, but will instead focus on the health risk factors that are directly relevant to nursing science. Furthermore, this review covers antisocial, aggressive, delinquent, and criminal behavior as well as violence. These constructs are not synonymous, but because antisocial and delinquent behavior are major risk factors for later aggression and violence (Farrington, 1989), they also are included in this review.
Section snippets
Prenatal factors
Prenatal risk factors for antisocial and violent behavior are especially relevant for maternal-child health nursing and midwifery because if these factors do indeed raise the risk for aggressive and violent behavior, there would be implications for prevention programs focused on nursing concepts. To date, studies have examined prenatal risk factors which include maternal exposure to alcohol, tobacco and drugs, pregnancy/birth complications, and malnutrition. Most of these studies are limited to
The significance of biosocial research
While the emphasis of this review lies with biological processes, the psychosocial context should not be forgotten. Farrington (1989) in a longitudinal survey of 411 London males from ages 8 to 32 years of age found that the best predictors of aggression and violence were poverty, family criminality, poor child-rearing, school failure, hyperactivity-impulsivity-attention deficit, and child antisocial behavior. Similarly, other authors have emphasized the importance of parenting (
Implications for nursing studies
Despite its historical links to the nursing profession which embraces biological perspectives, nursing science has not yet recognized the full implications that this new body of biological research has for violence prevention. The significance of understanding the etiology of aggression and violence for nursing science is broad. As indicated by this review, rather than having limited relevance to psychiatric nursing, violence etiology also bears on the nursing areas of maternal-child health
Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by a NRSA award (1 F32 NR008661-01) from the National Institute of Nursing Research, USA to Jianghong Liu.
References (121)
Violence prevention receives international attention
Lancet
(2004)- et al.
Prenatal nicotine exposure modifies behavior of mice through early development
Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior
(1998) - et al.
Low serum cholesterol in violent but not in non-violent suicide attempters
Psychiatry Research
(2000) - et al.
The relationship between testosterone and aggressiona meta-analysis
Aggression and Violent Behavior
(2001) Zinc and childhood hyperactivity
Biological Psychiatry
(1986)- et al.
Testosterone, intelligence and behavior disorders in young boys
Personality and Individual Differences
(2000) - et al.
Serotonin function and antiaggressive response to fluoxetinea pilot study
Biological Psychiatry
(1997) Exposure to lead during development alters aggressive behavior in golden hamsters
Neurotoxicology and Teratology
(1999)- et al.
Changes in brain glucose levels and glucose transporter protein isoforms in alcohol- or nicotine-treated chick embryos
Brain Research Developmental Brain Research
(1997) Low serum cholesterol and suicide
Lancet
(1992)
Abnormalities in hair trace elements as indicators of aberrant behavior
Comprehensive Psychiatry
Intra-uterine nutrition and its effects on aggression
Physiology and Behavior
Review and methodological considerations in research on testosterone and aggression
Aggression and Violent Behavior
Behavioral sequelae of perinatal insults and early family adversity at 8 years of age
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Hyperactivity and serum and hair zinc levels in 11-year-old children from the general population
Biological Psychiatry
Whole blood serotonin relates to violence in an epidemiological study
Biological Psychiatry
A meta-analytic review of the relation between antisocial behavior and neuropsychological measures of executive function
Clinical Psychology Review
Prenatal nicotine exposure affects the development of the central serotonergic system as well as the dopaminergic system in rat offspringinvolvement of route of drug administrations
Brain Research Developmental Brain Research
N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit changes are associated with lead-induced deficits of long-term potentiation and spatial learning
Neuroscience
Risk factors of child maltreatment within the familytowards a knowledgeable base of family nursing
International Journal of Nursing Studies
Identification of child maltreatment while caring for them in a university hospital
International Journal of Nursing Studies
Minor physical anomaliesmodifiers of environmental risks for psychiatric impairment?
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Behavioral effects of intra-nigral microinjections of manganese chlorideinteraction with nitric oxide
Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
Low resting heart rate at age 3 years predisposes to aggression at age 11 yearsevidence from the Mauritius Child Health Project
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by positron emission tomography
Biological Psychiatry
Prenatal cocaine exposureeffects on the development of school-age children
Neurotoxicology and Teratology
Social and behavioral effects of traumatic brain injury in children
Brain Injury
Does zinc moderate essential fatty acid and amphetamine treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder?
Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology
Minor physical anomalies and family adversity as risk factors for violent delinquency in adolescence
American Journal of Psychiatry
Influences of serotonin and testosterone in aggression and dominanceconvergence with social psychology
Current Directions in Psychological Science
Lead poisoning—one approach to a problem that won’t go away
Environmental Health Perspectives
The effects of tryptophan depletion and loading on laboratory aggression in mentime course and a food-restricted control
Psychopharmacology
Maternal smoking during pregnancy and adult male criminal outcomes
Archives of General Psychiatry
Lifetime low-level exposure to environmental lead and children's emotional and behavioral development at ages 11–13 years. The Port Pirie Cohort Study
American Journal of Epidemiology
Abuse during pregnancyprogress, policy, and potential
American Journal of Public Health
Physiology of Behavior
Neurotransmitter correlates of impulsive aggression in humans
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Behavior trouble in nursery school children and their possible relationship to pregnancy or delivery complication
Acta Psychiatric Belgica
Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenthood
American Psychology
Efforts by the American Academy of Pediatrics to prevent and reduce violence and its effects on children and adolescents
Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
Teacher-assessed behavior of children prenatally exposed to cocaine
Pediatrics
Early predictors of adolescent aggression and adult violence
Violence and Victims
The relationship between low resting heart rate and violence
Understanding aggressive behavior in children
Maternal smoking before and after pregnancyeffects on behavioral outcomes in middle childhood
Pediatrics
Aggression in the schoolstoward reducing ethnic conflict and enhancing ethnic understanding
Biobehavioral Perspectives in Criminology
Health visitors’ perceptions of domestic violencethe private nature of the problem
Journal of Advanced Nursing
Physicians as violence prevention activists—a qualitative study
Women Health
Cited by (58)
Aggressive Driving, Rule-Breaking, and Driver Stress in Spanish-speaking countries
2023, Transportation Research Interdisciplinary PerspectivesAggressive behaviour and violence in children and adolescents with FASD: A synthesizing review
2022, Clinical Psychology ReviewAdverse perinatal events and offspring criminal convictions in men and women: A population-based study
2022, Journal of Criminal JusticeAssociation between prenatal exposure to household inhalants exposure and ADHD-like behaviors at around 3 years of age: Findings from Shenzhen Longhua Child Cohort Study
2019, Environmental ResearchCitation Excerpt :The exact mechanism through which maternal ETS exposure predisposes their offspring to behavioral problems remains unclear. However, it is well documented that tobacco smoke contains >4500 compounds and many of these compounds are known neurotoxicants (Liu, 2011; Liu et al., 2005). Nicotine and carbon monoxide can damage the noradrenergic system, decrease dopamine and serotonin impaired basal ganglia, cerebellar cortex and cerebral cortex; reduce brain glucose; retard brain growth, structural deficits to the corpus callosum (Liu, 2011).
Environmental Determinants of Aggression in Adolescents: Role of Urban Neighborhood Greenspace
2016, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent PsychiatryImpact of a stress management program on stress perception of nurses working with psychiatric patients
2015, Asian Journal of PsychiatryCitation Excerpt :When confronted by issues such as nurse shortage, violence in the unit, advances in technology, and demands from the multi-disciplinary team, these nurses can have high levels of stress. Worker injuries and verbally aggressive patients are reported to be increasing and are associated with higher rates of burnout of psychiatric nurses (Liu and Wuerker, 2005; Flannery et al., 2007). With robust clustered regression analysis, it was found that lower levels of psychiatric nurse burnout among 353 nurses was significantly associated with inpatient environments in 67 hospitals that had better overall quality work environments, more effective managers, strong nurse–physician relationships, and higher psychiatric nurse-to-patient staffing ratios (Hanrahan et al., 2010).