The Role of Parenting in Relational Aggression and Prosocial Behavior among Emerging Adults

This study investigated the role of remembered parenting styles and parental psychological control in the prediction of relational aggression and prosocial behavior in a college student sample (N = 323). Participants’ retrospective ratings of how they were parented were related to relational aggression and prosocial behavior; however, somewhat different relationships emerged for African American and White participants. Permissive parenting, authoritative parenting, and parental psychological control predicted relational aggression. Participant race and all 3 parenting styles (authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive) predicted prosocial behavior. Participant race moderated the relationship between psychological control and prosocial behavior. Specifically, parental psychological control was inversely related to prosocial behavior for African American, but not White, participants.     

Predictors of Relational Aggression and the Moderating Role of Religiousness

Predictors of relational aggression and the moderating role of religiousness on associations between relevant predictors and relational aggression were examined in a sample of 244 university students. Increased childhood relational aggression, increased adult relational victimization, lower agreeableness, and lower emotional stability significantly predicted increased adult relational aggression. Prayer moderated the relationship between agreeableness and adult relational aggression and the association between relational victimization and aggression, and religious service attendance moderated the relationship between emotional stability and relational aggression. Results are discussed in terms of the higher level latent personality constructs of self-regulation and communion, which suggest a potential protective function for religiousness in association with relational aggression.     

Relational and Social Aggression and Reflective Processing in a University Sample

This study examined whether the dimension of reflective processing (e.g., deep and elaborative processing) was connected to the use of relational aggressions, social aggression, or both. A convenience sample of 629 college students (66% female, 91.6% White) was surveyed to ascertain the relation between self-reported relational and social aggression and deep and elaborative processing. The overall multivariate regression model was significant, Wilks’s λ = .12, F(4, 2162) = 1010.80, p < .001. Univariate results were used to show that the two predictors (relational and social aggression) significantly and strongly positively predicted the use of deep processing, R² = .81, p < .001, as well as the use of elaborative processing, R² = .87, p < .001. In summary, higher levels of social and relational aggression were related to higher levels of deep and elaborative processing. Implications for these findings are presented.     

Maternal Dysphoria,Maternal Attitudes Toward Parenting,and Childhood Externalizing Behavior as Predictors of Physical Aggression

The purpose of this study was to test for reciprocity and chaining in 4,897 children (2,568 boys, 2,329 girls) from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS). Cross-lagged correlations between maternal dysphoria and attitude at Waves 2 and 3 of the FFCWS revealed that maternal dysphoria and negative maternal attitudes toward parenting were reciprocally related. Regarding chaining, the direct effects of Wave 2 maternal dysphoria and attitudes on Wave 5 offspring physical aggression were nonsignificant, although both variables predicted Wave 5 physical aggression via their cross-lagged correlations with each other at Wave 3 and offspring externalizing behavior at Wave 4. These results indicate that dysphoria and negative maternal attitudes toward parenting are equally important in predicting offspring physical aggression.     

Threats to Enabling Contexts: Exploring Adolescents' Experiences of Aggression

This article explores adolescents' experiences of aggression in a secondary, multi-cultural school context in South Africa. The study group comprised of boys (n=24) and girls (n=17), attending grades 8–12. An inductive qualitative research approach was chosen where participants wrote about their experiences and participated in focused semi-structured interviews. Central themes were derived by means of a thematic content analysis. The results revealed that adolescents experienced negative feelings about aggression at school and that aggression was related to individual characteristics, the adolescent developmental stage, socialization, status, competition, home environment, prior experiences, learnt behaviour and the effect of the media and music. Exposure to aggression had emotional consequences such as feelings of anger, fear, depression, being controlled and a loss of self-content. Behavioural responses included retaliation, pacifism, vandalism and suicide. The findings suggest that learner involvement, conflict resolution skills and school guidance are necessary to manage aggression in the secondary school context.     

Career goal-related success expectations across two educational transitions: A seven-year longitudinal study

The purpose of this seven-year longitudinal study was to examine the trajectories of adolescents' career goal-related success expectations during two educational transitions. Altogether 850 (48% female, M Age = 16) participants reported their success expectations for their career-related goals, first in the last year of comprehensive school and four times during the following seven years. Overall, the success expectations showed a significant increase. However, there was considerable heterogeneity in the development of these expectations. Growth Mixture Modeling showed that four trajectories fitted the data best: high-increasing (78%), low-increasing (9%), decreasing (6%) and U-shaped (7%). The participants in the high-increasing trajectory were likely to be men, have origins in high SES, appraise career goal as highly important and have high levels of career goal-related parental support. Those in the decreasing trajectory were the least adapted in terms of their career situation at age 23.     

Ethnic Differences in Grade Trajectories During the Transition to Junior High

The transition from elementary to junior high school is difficult for some children, as indicated by a drop in grades in the new school setting from the beginning to end of the year. Finer-grain analysis of grade trajectories in the first year of junior high may reflect important differences among groups. In the present study, variables predicting linear and quadratic grade trajectories over the seventh grade were examined using a structural equation model (SEM, AMOS-4) and curve estimation procedures. Participants were 214 boys and 259 girls entering junior high (52% Anglo, 36% Hispanics, primarily of Mexican descent, and 12% Blacks). Three trajectory patterns were observed: “sliders,” students who showed a fairly steady grade decline over the year (characteristic of Anglos), “steadies,” students who varied little over the year (characteristic of Blacks), and “rebounders,” students whose grades dropped to a minimum in the fourth 6-week period, then showed limited recovery (characteristic of Hispanics). In the SEM, a lower intercept (representing the average of sixth grade grades) was associated with minority ethnic/racial status (Hispanic or Black), using more emotional discharge to cope, having a lower percentage of adults in the support network, poorer family functioning, and greater depression. Being Black was associated with a positive path coefficient to the linear slope of the grade trajectory, while a negative path coefficient was associated with using more emotional discharge in coping. The quadratic element (drop in grades with some recovery) was more pronounced for Hispanic participants, less pronounced for Black participants, and more pronounced when poorer family functioning was reported. Curve estimation procedures confirmed these ethnic/racial group differences. Reasons for such differences and their implications for schools and families are discussed.     

Development of Academic Skills from Preschool Through Second Grade: Family and Classroom Predictors of Developmental Trajectories

Children's experiences with their parents and teachers were related to the acquisition of academic skills from preschool through second grade. Individual and group growth curves were estimated, and individual patterns of change were predicted from selected demographic, family, and classroom characteristics to identify multiple pathways to early academic competence. Standardized assessments of language and academic skills and parent and teacher surveys were collected on 511 children beginning in the second-to-last year of child care through the third year of elementary school. As expected, children tended to show better academic skills across time if their parents had more education and reported more progressive parenting beliefs and practices. Statistical interactions between family background and teacher-child relationships indicated that a closer relationship with the teacher was positively related to language skills for African-American children and to reading competence for children whose parents reported more authoritarian attitudes. These results provide further evidence that social processes in classrooms are important for academic competence for children considered at risk for academic problems.     

The effect of religiosity and ethnic origin on direct and indirect aggression among males and females: Some Israeli findings

Israeli society is characterized by significant internal divisions. Two of the most salient of these divisions within the Jewish population relate to (1) religiosity (religious vs. secular Jews) and (2) ethnic origin (Eastern [Asian and North African] vs. Western [European and American]). The aim of this study was to assess the effects of these social divisions on aggressive behavior and victimization to aggression among Israeli children. Three types of aggressive behavior (physical, verbal, and indirect) were investigated by means of peer estimation. The sample (N = 630) was composed of three age groups (8‐, 11‐, and 15‐year‐olds). The findings indicate that in general, secular respondents scored higher on aggressive behavior and victimization than their religious counterparts, and respondents of Eastern origin scored higher than those of Israeli or Western origin. The effect of both religiosity and ethnic origin was stronger among girls than among boys. Ethnic origin had no effect on any of the boys’ measures but did affect these measures among girls. Among boys, religiosity affected verbal and indirect aggression and victimization. Among girls, indirect aggression and victimization, as well as victimization to physical aggression, were affected by religiosity. As to the effect of age, similar to previous studies, in all types of aggression and victimization, the 11‐year‐olds scored highest and the 15‐year‐olds scored lowest. Differences between the three types of aggression and victimization, as well as various interactions between the variables, are reported. The results are discussed within the wider context of the role of religiosity and ethnic origin in Israeli society. Aggr. Behav. 28:281–298, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Studying aggression in school children: The use of a wireless microphone and micro‐video camera

This paper describes a wireless microphone and micro‐video camera used successfully by the present authors to study direct, indirect, and relational forms of aggression in schools. Two major advantages of this equipment are identified; first, it avoids some of the potential biases and difficulties associated with the other methods and, second, it allows researchers to record and analyze a large number of significant variables that may otherwise be difficult to assess. The importance of this kind of data is discussed in relation to the development of effective interventions aimed at reducing aggression in schools. Aggr. Behav. 28:356–365, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.