Parenting practices and the early socialisation of relational aggression among preschoolers

Abstract

The present study examines parents' responses to their young children's relationally aggressive behaviour and compares these with the responses regarding children's overtly aggressive behaviour. Parents' beliefs about discipline strategies for addressing relational versus overt aggression at home and at school are also examined. Additionally, links between parenting (specific to both aggression and general characteristics) and children's aggressive behaviour and adjustment are explored. Findings suggest that parents have more specific rules about, and are more likely to discipline, overt aggression than about relational aggression. Parents are more supportive of discipline for overt aggression than of that for relational aggression in school; parents also believe that their children should be relatively independent in coping with relational victimisation at school. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Keywords:

• aggression
• parenting

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the schools and families that participated in this research.

Notes on contributors

Sara E. Goldstein, PhD, is associate professor of family and child studies at Montclair State University. She studies social and social-cognitive development during childhood and adolescence, with a focus on the development of aggressive behaviour and peer relationships.

Paul Boxer, PhD, is associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University. He studies the development of aggressive and antisocial behaviour over the lifespan, along with evidence-based interventions in the juvenile justice system.

Notes

There has been much debate over the terminology used to refer to socially manipulative, interpersonally harmful behaviour. Some researchers use the term relational aggression (Crick, 1995; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995), while others use indirect aggression (Björkqvist, 1994; Lagerspetz, Björkqvist, & Peltonen, 1988) or social aggression (Cairns, Cairns, Neckerman, Ferguson, & Gariépy, 1989; Galen & Underwood, 1997). Although the measurement of all three constructs typically focuses on similar socially manipulative behaviours, the definitions of each of these behaviours do vary. Indirect aggression is by definition a type of aggression where the perpetrator remains anonymous; however, in the cases of relational and social aggression, the perpetrator can be either known or unknown. Social aggression can also refer to non-verbal behaviour such as eye-rolling. The term relational aggression was chosen for the present paper because as the construct was measured, the aggressor's identity was not necessarily anonymous and there was no measure of subtle facial cues or gestures.