Moderating Effects of Mothers' Attribution on the Relationships Between Their Affect and Parenting Behaviors and Children's Aggressive Behaviors

We examined Bugental's (1987) transactional model in the context of the relationships between aggressive children and their mothers. Based on Bugental's model, it was hypothesized that mothers who possessed the attributional style of low self-control and high child-control over hypothetical child care failure were more likely to manifest negative affect and negative parenting behaviors toward their child, only when their child is aggressive. Children's aggressive behavior was assessed via mothers' and teachers' ratings. Sixty-six children and their mothers served as subjects. Our results provided support for mothers' negative affect when using teachers' rating of children's aggressive behaviors only. Possible explanations for the differential results obtained using mothers' and teachers' ratings of children's aggressive behaviors were discussed.