Perception of parental behavior and different aspects of aggressive behavior among elementary school children

Knezović, Daliborka. (2006). Perception of parental behavior and different aspects of aggressive behavior among elementary school children. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology. [mentor Buško, Vesna].

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Abstract

In the past the empirical data concerning the gender differences in aggressiveness were based mainly on the study of physical and verbal aggressivness. Nowadays, the focus has been shifted onto quality diferences in the preference of various styles of aggressiveness. There is an ever growing number of scientific data showing the tendency of men towards the direct and the tendency of women towards indirect aggressive behaviour, as well as, data indicating the potential harm this indirect aggressiveness can have on the development of an individual. Therefore, one purpose of this paper was to examine the existance of age and gender differences in relation to direct and indirect aggressiveness. The importance of family and the parent-child relationship, as agents of socialization, has been proven by numerous research. While there is numerous empirical data of the parental influence on the development of child physical and verbal aggressiveness, there is relatively little data concerning linkages between family processes and child indirect aggressiveness. It is because of this that in this paper we have focused on the examination of gender differences in children's perception of parental behaviour, and on verfying the predictability of various dimensions of parental behaviour concerning various forms of child aggressiveness. The research included children attending an elementary school in Zagreb, from fifth to eighth grade (N=115). The perception of parental behaviour was examined through a questionnaire designed to assess parental behaviour (CRPBI-57), the version of the questionnaire in which the children assess the behaviour of their mother and father towards themselves, while the aggressive behaviour was examined via scale for peer assessment and self-assessment of aggressivness. For further analysis, peer assessment of aggressiveness was used alongside the self-assessment of direct, indirect and overall aggressiveness. End results point to the difference in children's perception of their parents' behaviour. Mothers are generally perceived as more responsive and controling than fathers. We also found that girls perceived mothers' behaviour as more responsive, while the boys deemed it as more psychologically controling. Boys are overall more aggressive, based on peer assessment and self-assessment, and more direct aggressive than girls, based on their self-assessment. When indirect aggressiveness is concerned, no gender differences have been determined. Older children are seen as less aggressive than the younger ones (based on peer assessment), but no significant age difference in the degree of self-rated direct and indirect aggressiveness has been determined. It has been confirmed that variables of parental behaviour make a significant contribution to explaining variance in child aggressiveness (self-assessment of aggressiveness), and that these, alongside the age and gender variables of the child, explain 32% variance of overall and direct aggressiveness, while independently they explain 18.5% variance of indirect aggressiveness.

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