Life Sentence

If your child is the tormentor not the tormented, don’t dismiss his bullying as a phase. The earlier you intervene, the better. Studies show that aggressive kids tend to grow into, not out of, their behavior, said Leonard Eron, professor of psychiatry at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.

He conducted a 26-year study that tracked 8-year-old boys who were highly aggressive. By 30, these individuals had more criminal convictions, were more prone to domestic violence, had more drunk driving arrests, and didn’t achieve as much socially, economically or educationally as their nonaggressive male counterparts. There were no differences between the groups in IQ or social status.