Raine A, Venables P H, Mednick S A
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089-1061, USA.
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1997 Oct;36(10):1457-64. doi: 10.1097/00004583-199710000-00029.
Previous studies indicate that low resting heart rate is probably the best-replicated biological correlate of childhood antisocial and aggressive behavior. Nevertheless, there have been few longitudinal tests of this relationship, little control over potential confounds and mediators, and no test of its cross-cultural generalizability. This study tests the hypothesis that low resting heart rate at age 3 years predicts aggression at age 11 years.
Resting heart rate at age 3 years was assessed in 1,795 male and female children from Mauritius. Aggressive and nonaggressive forms of antisocial behavior were assessed at age 11 years using the Child Behavior Checklist.
Aggressive children had lower heart rates than nonaggressive children (p < .001). Conversely, those with low heart rates were more aggressive than those with high heart rates (p < .003). There were no interactions with gender or ethnicity. Evidence was found for specificity of low heart rate to aggressive forms of antisocial behavior. Group differences in heart rate were not attributable to 11 biological, psychological, and psychiatric mediators and confounds.
It is concluded that low resting heart rate, a partly heritable trait reflecting fearlessness and stimulation-seeking, is an important, diagnostically specific, well-replicated, early biological marker for later aggressive behavior.
以往研究表明，静息心率低可能是儿童反社会和攻击行为最具重复性的生物学关联因素。然而，对这种关系进行纵向检验的研究较少，对潜在混杂因素和中介因素的控制不足，且未对其跨文化普遍性进行检验。本研究检验了3岁时静息心率低可预测11岁时攻击行为的假设。
对来自毛里求斯的1795名男女儿童进行了3岁时静息心率的评估。使用儿童行为量表对11岁时的反社会行为的攻击型和非攻击型形式进行了评估。
攻击型儿童的心率低于非攻击型儿童（p <.001）。相反，心率低的儿童比心率高的儿童更具攻击性（p <.003）。不存在与性别或种族的交互作用。有证据表明静息心率低对反社会行为的攻击形式具有特异性。心率的组间差异并非归因于11种生物学、心理学和精神方面的中介因素和混杂因素。
得出的结论是，静息心率低是一种反映无畏和寻求刺激的部分可遗传特征，是后期攻击行为的一个重要的、具有诊断特异性的、重复性良好的早期生物学标志物。
