Second, we applied the framework advanced by Moffitt [1993] of “adolescent-limited” vs. “life-course-persistent” aggression to our sample in order to examine the middle adulthood consequences of different patterns of aggressiveness from middle childhood to early adulthood. Consistent with prior research and theory regarding the nature and correlates of life-course-persistent antisocial behavior, we observed that individuals who remained high in aggression from age 8 through 30 fared most poorly in comparison with others on a variety of criminal and psychosocial outcomes. This is one of the first studies to extend the Moffitt framework out to middle adulthood, and consequently has important implications for advancing theory and research on the development of aggressive behavior.
