Poster #30 - The Relationship Between Parental Negative Talk and Preschool Children’s Aggressive, and Assertive Behaviors

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Introduction: The current study examines the relationship between assertive behavior, aggressive behavior, and parental negative talk in preschool aged children. Assertive behavior is a social skill, associated with leadership potential (Hu et al., 2019). Aggression, which is a facet of externalizing behaviors (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), is intended to cause harm to other individuals (Nikel, 2020). Aggression and assertiveness both involve respecting one’s own rights, but aggression lacks a concern for respecting the rights of other individuals (Nikel, 2020). One form of verbal aggression is parental negative talk, which is expressed by a child’s parent or guardian figure. The language a parent uses when conversing with their child can impact the child’s perception of self (Sahithya & Raman, 2021), and poor self-perception may be related to increased aggression (Wallace et al., 2012). Additionally, parents with multiple children may treat the children differently, and this can impact how the children behave. Therefore, utilizing a twin sample enables comparison between differential parental behaviors and behaviors children express. This study examines a twin sample of preschoolers (within a formative period of development) in order to explore the relationship between parental negative talk, and both aggressive and assertive behaviors. We specifically hypothesized that children who received more negative talk would be more aggressive and less assertive when interacting with others.

Methods: 140 children (54% girls) participated in a longitudinal study at ages 4 and 5 years. Children provided responses to a story completion task; assertive/non-compliant responses were tallied to create an assertiveness score. At the end of testing, children were observed while completing an interactive puzzle task with one of their parents. Parental negative talk (NT) and child aggression were coded during this task. The total number of NT and aggressive behaviors were counted over the 10-minute interaction and a sum score for each was derived. Coding for all three variables was completed by trained, reliable raters.

Results: Pearson correlations were used to examine the relationships between NT, aggression, and assertive behaviors. Data from age 4 show a positive significant correlation between parent NT and child aggression, r(140) = .24, p = .005 (see Table). Parent NT was not significantly correlated with child assertiveness. Preliminary results for age 5 data (which are still in the process of being coded) similarly show a positive correlation between NT at age 5 and observed aggression at age 5, r(95) = .25, p = .012, but not between NT and assertiveness.

Discussion: These findings support the hypothesis that there is a relationship between parental negative talk and children’s aggressive behaviors. Contrary to hypotheses, there was not a significant relationship between parental negative talk and child assertiveness. It is possible that children view NT as aggressive language and imitate it, or shared genes might lead to aggression by parents and their children. The results from this study can assist in educating parents on the importance of reducing negative parenting in order to limit the frequency of disruptive behaviors, although this may not result in an increase in assertiveness behaviors.

Authors

• Tori McNary, Southern Illinois University
  Presenting Author

• Lisabeth Fisher DiLalla, Southern Illinois University