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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

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Published on: December 2, 2015
Gender differences in aggressiveness in children and adolescents at risk for schizophrenia
Elisa Kijner Gutt1, Sandra Petresco, Renata Krelling
1Department of Psychiatry, Medical School, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. elisagutt@gmail.com
Objective:
This study aimed to investigate whether differences in aggression-related behavioral problems occur between boys and girls at high risk for schizophrenia living in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.
Method:
Using the Child Behavior Checklist, we compared the prevalence of behavioral problems between genders for the offspring (6-18 years) of mothers with diagnosis of schizophrenia and a comparison group of children born to women with no severe mental disorders recruited at the gynecology outpatient clinic of the same hospital. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders, Patient Edition was applied for the evaluation of diagnostic status of mothers.
Results:
Male children of women with schizophrenia had a lower prevalence of aggressive behavior compared to females (4% vs. 36%; p = 0.005), whereas no gender differences regarding aggression were detected in the comparison group (24% vs. 32%; p = 0.53). Logistic regression analyses showed that male gender and being a child of women with schizophrenia interacted so as to favor lower prevalence of aggressive behavior (p = 0.03).
Conclusion:
These findings reinforce the notion that behavioral gender differences related to schizophrenia are already detectable in childhood.
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