ABCD study
Link to the study website: ABCD STUDY WEBSITE
Research problem
Aggressive Behavior (AB) is present and observed from early childhood. However, the combined effect of brain maturation and socialization influences the decrease of physical aggressiveness. At the same time, alternative forms appear that, depending on the culture, may be socially acceptable to achieve personal goals and resolve conflicts.
AB is heterogeneous, has different forms of manifestation (physical/direct and indirect/relational), and fulfills diverse functions (proactive/instrumental and reactive/impulsive). It is considered a transdiagnostic symptom that accompanies different disorders of disruptive behavior in the child and adolescent population. These disorders represent health, economic and social burden with a significant impact on the affected person, his or her family, and society in general. Previous studies have focused mainly on children and mostly on one form of manifestation or a single dimension. However, it cannot be ruled out that in girls, there may be differences in the forms of manifestation, associated correlates, and impact on health. On the other hand, there are forms of manifestation that may go unnoticed in order to be apparently less disturbing to society in general but have significant repercussions for both, the victim and the child who manifests them.
Different correlates (markers) have also been proposed to understand individual differences in frequency, persistence, and intensity of AB observed very early. Knowledge must continue to be increased to characterize protective and risk factors and design effective preventive interventions at crucial stages of development.
What will we study?
Our project will investigate several dimensions of aggression, psychopathology symptoms, prosocial behavior, and academic performance.
A profiling study will be conducted to characterize the heterogeneity of AB from a gender perspective, which will serve as a basis for studying trajectories in future longitudinal studies.
Also, we want to study psychopathic personality traits, executive functions, acquisition of fear conditioning, the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system, and early adversity indicators
What is expected?
It is expected that the studied correlates will advance the knowledge of AB from a gender perspective, deepen the different etiological factors (processes) leading to severe AB, and investigate possible biomarkers of these behaviors.
Current clinical classification systems are not very useful in guiding intervention on AB. An approach to the problem based on the delimitation of the fundamental processes involved in the different aggressive profiles could contribute much more effectively to the development of specific prevention programs for each aggressive profile that, from a cross-sectional approach, not focused on diagnosis, would be useful to prevent the development and chronification of this type of behavior and contribute to eliminate the stigma.
About us
Principal investigators:
Ph.D. Beatriz Molinuevo
Ph.D. Roser Nadal
Several members of our group:
Ph.D. Albert Bonillo
Ph.D. Anastasya Ivanova
Ph.D. Rafael Torrubia
And collaborators:
Ph.D. Silvia Fuentes (Universidad de Granada).
Ph.D. Laura López-Romero (Universidad Santiago de Compostela)
Ph.D. Montse Pamias (Hospital Parc Taulí)
Ph.D. Iris Pérez-Bonaventura (Hospital Parc Taulí)
Ph.D. David Torrents (University of Marburg)