Poster #95 - Intimate partner violence, parent-child aggression and children’s beliefs about aggression

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Normative beliefs about aggression are defined as beliefs about the legitimacy, justifiability and acceptability of aggressive behavior (Huesmann, & Guerra, 1997). Such beliefs have been linked to youth perpetration of physical aggression, relational aggression, cyber aggression, bullying and dating violence (e.g. Ang, Tan, & Mansor, 2011; Gendron, Williams, & Guerra, 2011; Wright & Li, 2013). Children’s exposure to aggression within the family, such as witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV) or directly experiencing parental physical aggression increases the likelihood of children developing beliefs justifying aggression, which contribute to later externalizing problems (e.g. Deater-Deckard, Lansford, Dodge, Pettit, & Bates, 2003; Marcus, Lindahl, & Malik, 2001). Although it is established that IPV and parent-child aggression often co-occur (Hamby, Finkelhor, Turner, & Ormrod, 2010; Jouriles, McDonald, Slep, Heyman, & Garrido, 2008), few studies examine how different forms of family aggression contribute conjointly to cognitive process linked to the development of child aggression, such as normative beliefs about aggression. The current study examines how IPV and parent-child aggression together contribute to children’s normative beliefs about aggression in a longitudinal study.
Mothers and children from dual-parent families were recruited to participate in a longitudinal study that included baseline, 6-month, and 12-month assessments; 539 mother-child dyads completed the baseline assessment, with 521 retained at the 6th month assessment and 505 at the 12th month assessment. Children were 8.47 years old on average at baseline (SD=1.16); 50 % of children were White, 26% Black/African American, 14% Hispanic, .7% Asian or Pacific Islander, .4% American Indian or Alaskan Native and 9% Biracial/Others. Mothers were 36.24 year on average at baseline (SD=6.45) with 14.54 years of education (SD=2.59).
Mothers reported on physical IPV in the past 6 months using the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2; Straus et al., 1996) and on physical aggression directed at their children using the Conflict Tactics Scales-Parent-Child Scale (CTS-PC; Straus, Hamby, Finkelhor, Moore, & Runyan, 1998). Children reported their own beliefs about the justifiability of using aggression in interpersonal interactions using the Normative Beliefs about Aggression Scale (NBAAS; Huesmann & Guerra, 1997).
We examined cross-lag relations with IPV and parent-child aggression relating to children’s normative beliefs about aggression over the two 6-month intervals of the study using multilevel modeling. Child sex, mothers’ ethnicity and years of education, and family income were included as control variables in the initial analytic models. However, only mothers’ ethnicity was associated with children’s normative beliefs about aggression; it was therefore retained in the final models and the other demographic variables were dropped. Children’s normative beliefs about aggression at assessment j is modeled as a function of IPV and parent-child aggression, controlling for children’s normative beliefs about aggression at assessment j-1 and mother’s ethnicity. IPV, but not parent-child aggression, was positively related to children’s normative beliefs about aggression at subsequent assessments; IPV b = 0.01, SE < .01, t(517) = 2.45, p = .015; parent-child aggression b < 0.01, SE < .01, t(536) = 0.70, p = .944. Therefore, IPV directly predicted children’s normative beliefs about aggression beyond parent-child aggression.

Authors

• Shuang Bi, Southern Methodist University
  Presenting Author

• Nicole L. Vu, Southern Methodist University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Renee McDonald, Southern Methodist University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ernest Jouriles, Southern Methodist University
  Non-Presenting Author