In summary, the present research provides novel insights into how children’s trust beliefs are linked with trajectories of overt aggressive behavior. This is the first longitudinal study using a large, ethnically diverse sample to show that children’s trust beliefs predict trajectories of aggression, and that risk profiles of low trust and low SES contribute to highly-stable aggression trajectories. Theoretically, these findings extend models on the role of trust in the develop- ment of psychopathology and adaptation (Erikson 1963). They indicate that a child’s trustfulness in others, as well as his or her perceived trustworthiness, affect differential developmental pathways of aggression across middle child- hood. Importantly, children with low trust beliefs and from families with low SES appear to be particularly at risk for high-stable pathways of aggressive behavior. These findings are of interest not only for theoretical reasons, but also because of their clinical relevance for interventions aimed at reducing aggression in children by strengthening inter- personal trust. Our findings indicate that it might be useful to tailor interventions aimed at reducing aggression differ- entially, based on children’s trust belief scores. For example, children with highly-stable aggressive behavior trajectories may particularly benefit from interventions aimed at increas- ing trust in others, as well as in strengthening peer relation- ships to increase a target child’s trustworthiness by his or her peers. From a clinical stance, this differential approach
implies that psychotherapeutic interventions with children who display stable aggression over time may benefit from a systematic implementation of screening procedures that in- clude measures of interpersonal trust. Only by identifying if beliefs about trust in others and trustworthiness are low is an intervention strategy likely to have an impact on the child’s trust beliefs and related social reputation among peers and behavior of the child toward peers which, in turn, may affect the child’s future social interactions and adaptive skills.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to the children, parents, and teachers for participating in the study. Moreover, the authors are grateful to all the interviewers and undergraduate students for their help in data collection and coding.
Special thanks to Dr. Lucy Betts for her help with obtaining the scores of the trust measure. The authors would like to acknowledge financial support for the Zurich Project on the Social Development for Children by, amongst others, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Jacobs Foundation, th