Agenda

Social learning has traditionally been perceived by many has the main developmental mechanism leading to youth chronic physical aggression. Longitudinal studies over the past decade have changed this perception. By tracing the development of physical aggression from infancy it has become clear that humans use physical aggression soon after birth and learn from their environment not to aggress. Failure to learn to solve problems without physical aggression during the preschool years leads to numerous physical, mental and social problems during middle childhood, adolescence and adulthood. This talk will highlight recent research which suggests that we need a substantial increase of experimental studies during the perinatal period to unravel the genetic and environmental mechanisms which may help identify means of preventing chronic physical aggression and other life-long disabling health and social problems. 

Richard E. Tremblay is Emeritus Professor at the University of Montreal (Canada) and Professor of Child Development at University College Dublin (Ireland). He coordinates the Marie Curie International Network for Early Childhood Health Development, is the founding editor of the on-line Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development and the founding director of a Canadian Inter-University research centre (GRIP). He received the John Paul Scott career award from the International Society for Research on Aggression, the Laufer prevention award from the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences and the International research award from the Italian Societa Liberta. He is a fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Grand Officer of Chile’s Gabriela Mistral Order