How Forms and Functions of Aggression Evoke Overprotective/Intrusive Parenting in Middle Childhood

• In Event: Developmental pathways to childhood aggression: The roles of parenting and household structure

Abstract

Negative parenting is positively related to children’s aggressive behavior (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 2015; Yan & Ansari, 2017). Although researchers often conceptualize negative parenting as a risk factor for the development of aggression, children’s externalizing behaviors also appear to have evocative effects on parenting (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 2015; Yan & Ansari, 2017). Indeed, when children are aggressive, parents may adopt overprotective or intrusive behaviors (e.g., restricting child autonomy; Eisenberg et al., 2015) in an attempt to address their children’s objectionable conduct or safeguard their children from negative consequences. However, reactive (i.e., retaliatory) functions of aggression may be more likely to elicit overprotective/intrusive parenting behaviors as they are typically associated with greater maladjustment and peer victimization than proactive (i.e., goal-oriented) functions of aggression (see Card & Little, 2008). In fact, children who are high in negative reactivity are more likely to evoke controlling parenting (Braungart-Rieker et al., 1997). In addition, although both physical (e.g., hitting) and relational (e.g., spreading malicious gossip) forms of aggression are related to parenting (e.g., Hart et al., 2000; Yang et al., 2001), overprotective/intrusive parenting may be evoked by children enacting behaviors that are gender non-normative (e.g., physically aggressive girls), as non-normative aggression may place children at higher risk for maladjustment (e.g., Krygsman & Vaillancourt, 2019). Alternatively, gender stereotypes among parents may lead them to more often notice gender-normative forms of aggression in their children (Card et al., 2008), perhaps leading to greater evocative effects for relational aggression among girls and physical aggression among boys. In the present study, we examined the effect of forms and functions of aggression on changes in overprotective/intrusive parenting over time, and gender differences in these associations.

Participants included a sample of 212 preadolescent children (54.72% girls, 87.26% White/Non-Hispanic, ages 8.53-12.44). Parents reported on their overprotective/intrusive parenting (Hart & Robinson, 1995; e.g., directing child’s behavior) at baseline (α = .87) and one year later (α = .86). Teachers reported on children’s forms and functions of aggression at baseline (αs = .79-.89; Banny et al., 2014). Child age, race/ethnicity, and parental education were included as covariates. Path analyses indicated that associations between aggression and changes in parenting differed by gender (see Table 1). Among boys only, proactive physical aggression was related to decreases in overprotective/intrusive parenting over time, whereas reactive physical aggression was associated with increases in these parenting behaviors. Among girls only, relational aggression was associated with overprotective/intrusive parenting, such that proactive relational aggression predicted decreases, whereas reactive relational aggression predicted increases, in these parenting behaviors over time. Findings suggest that parents may become less protective of children who use aggression strategically or in the pursuit of goals (i.e., proactively aggressive) but may become overinvolved in the daily activities of children who are dysregulated in their use of aggression (i.e., reactively aggressive). In addition, physically aggressive behaviors appear especially salient in eliciting overprotective parenting in boys, whereas relationally aggressive behaviors appear especially salient in eliciting overprotective parenting in girls. Implications of the findings will be discussed.

Authors

• Maria Christopoulos Lent, University of Vermont
  Presenting Author

• Casey Buck, University of Vermont

• Dianna Murray-Close, University of Vermont