Children who grow up in dangerous neighborhoods exhibit more aggressive behavior, according to a new paper in Societies.
Lots of U.S. studies have suggested a link between dangerous neighborhoods and aggressive behavior in kids but the authors of the new paper wanted to determine whether the pattern held true worldwide. So they interviewed parents and children from 1,293 families in nine countries: China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand and the United States.
The questions involved dangers in their neighborhoods. Based on the answers, the researchers scored the neighborhoods according to their degree of danger.