This happened to Ashley last year. There is no way of knowing unless you get the bloods checked really whether it is a case of him mimicking what his older brother does or if it is his hormones being imbalanced. I have four boys so I under stand the fact that whatever the eldest does rubs off onto the younger ones. I mean the three yo is so advanced because he just mimicks what the other two older ones do! However, kids have choices where behaviour is concerned and if you have 10 yo that is normally very good and he then starts to be different---you have to rule all the other factors out before you assume it is him trying to "be like" his older brother. When you consider that it is a reasonable symptom of high androgen levels for behaviour to follow like that---then it is not worth the risk of brushing it to one side and just accepting it is him mimicking behaviour of others---because what can happen when these kids are exposed to such high androgens is not really "brush off" material in my opinion and it needs therefore to be checked. When we finally got Ashleys levels checked---the Paed had left him 7 mths---his 17 OHP was 426* nmol/L--which is 15'000 ng/dl. That is way out of the normal parameters and infact the average male has those androgen levels---except the average male's andrenal glands can make cortisol to rectify such and bring the cortisol levels more in line with what they should be when their androgen levels are thus. Ashley of course could not---so he had an imbalance there---and I do not care what ANY Doctor says---THAT is what affects behaviour big time! There is a large difference between a child who has the advantages of normal funtioning adrenal glands that can immediately redress the balance so that they are able to feel good about themselves--and a child whose adrenals cannot because they are artificially being dosed and whose androgen levels are getting out of control. To be honest--as we do not really know how it affects such without asking adult individuals, we cannot dismiss the plain facts it could affect behaviour to such an extent that they are more suscetible to being unable to control a portion of it. That area of the brain that produces acth (anterior or is it posterior pituitary) is responsible for actually helping to control behaviour also. There are chemicals that help to inhibit such behaviour from what I had been reading--so it stands to reason that if there is an imbalance, it would most certainly affect those chemicals and therefore make it easier for a child to be confrontational or upset more easily. That is in fact where it becomes an issue for redressing hormone imbalances causing such.