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

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Researchers have dedicated substantial effort to clarify how, when, and for whom aggression develops (for review, see Lansford, 2018). Consistent with the developmental psychopathology perspective that children actively contribute to their environment (Sroufe & Rutter, 1984), evidence demonstrates recursive relations between context (e.g., parenting) and child behavior (e.g., Patterson, 1982). Additional household features, such as chaos, are also associated with varied forms and functions of aggressive behavior (Barry et al., 2009). This symposium includes papers from three multi-informant investigations examining longitudinal associations between home contexts (e.g., parenting, chaos) and aggressive behavior across childhood.

The first paper illuminates the internalization of aggressive relational representations as a significant mediator of prospective relations from insensitive parenting to later childhood aggression. The second paper documents child physical and relational aggression in the context of household unpredictability at various levels of supportive and harsh parenting across the transition to formal schooling. The third paper considers the effects of children’s proactive and reactive aggression on changes in overprotective and intrusive parenting in middle childhood. Together, these studies highlight the salience of parenting, household unpredictability, and child behavior to yield a comprehensive model of the development of aggressive behavior across childhood.

Joined by a discussant with expertise in the development of subtypes of aggressive behavior in children, this symposium draws on diverse samples with sophisticated assessment and analytic approaches to understand why and for whom parenting and household structure relate to child aggressive behavior.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Amanda Sadri, University of California - Riverside

Discussant

• Jamie M. Ostrov, State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo)

Individual Presentations

• Insensitive parenting and childhood aggression: The mediating role of children's aggressive relational representations - Presenting Author: Amanda Sadri, University of California - Riverside; Brianne Coulombe, University of South Carolina Aiken; Melanie Mooangprang; Breannon James; Tuppett M. Yates, University of California - Riverside

• Examining the Effect of Unpredictability in the Home on Forms of Aggression in Early Childhood: The Moderating Role of Supportive and Harsh Parenting - Presenting Author: Gabriela Vivian Memba, State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo); Jamie M. Ostrov, State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo); Kristin Tymchak

• How Forms and Functions of Aggression Evoke Overprotective/Intrusive Parenting in Middle Childhood - Presenting Author: Maria Christopoulos Lent, University of Vermont; Casey Buck, University of Vermont; Dianna Murray-Close, University of Vermont