Abstract

SANDOVAL, Juan de Jesús. School, family and community environment and its relation to aggresive and pro-social behavior in 3 to 12 years old children, Medellín, Colombia, 2001. Rev. Fac. Nac. Salud Pública [online]. 2006, vol.24, n.1, pp.30-39. ISSN 0120-386X.

A cross sectional study was carried out using multilevel linear models methodology. Children’s educational institutions and neighborhoods were taken as their natural context to describe relations between aggressive and pro-social behaviors, individual and environmental characteristics of 3 to 12 years old children living in northeastern areas of Medellin. Analysis of two secondary data sources were performed on COPRAG test and the study of families made by the Social Work School of Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellin. Characteristics were analyzed looking for answers to the problem of aggressive behaviors in students. Among the more important results there is the finding that boys are statistically more School, family and community environment and its relation to aggressive and pro-social behaviour in 3 to 12 years old children, Medellin, Colombia, 2001 aggressive than girls (P < 0.01) and girls are statistically more pro-social than boys (p < 0.01). School context impact on aggressive and pro-social behavior was proved (P < 0.01). Once again it was confirmed that interaction between classmates have an influence on the development of socially acceptable conducts; among other findings it was also observed that children with a high academic performance tend to be more pro-social than those below class average (P < 0,01).

Keywords : Pro-social behavior; aggressive behavior; hyperactivity; multilevel models.