One accepted way to investigate the continuity of aggression over multiple waves is to use structural equation modeling to hypothesize a latent trait of aggressiveness with the continuity in observed measures being explained mostly through the path coefficients relating the latent trait in each wave to the next. Using this technique with the first three waves of data in the Columbia County Study, we [Huesmann et al., 1984] found disattenuated stability coefficients over 22 years from age 8 to 30 of .50 for males and .35 for females. We recomputed this model with the current data on the 523 participants whom we re-interviewed in Wave 4. For this four-wave model, the disattenuated continuity coefficients were very similar as before: 50 for males (see Fig. 1) and .42 for females (see Fig. 2). The actual continuity correlations were somewhat less as shown in Table I, but the continuity correlation for most lags in years was still higher for males than females. For both genders, continuity was greater from age 19 onward than prior to age 19. Recall that in all these analyses, adult aggression is represented by a composite of physical aggression and aggressive personality.
