Parenting Style and Aggression: A Meta-Analysis of Mainland Chinese Children and Youth

Abstract

This meta-analysis of 70 studies of 33,089 Chinese students examines positive and negative parenting styles’ relations with aggression, and their moderators. Children who experienced negative parenting styles showed more aggression, and those who experienced positive parenting styles showed less aggression. Both positive and negative parenting styles’ links with aggression were larger (a) with parental emotional climate rather than parental socializing behaviours, (b) with self-reported rather than other-reported parenting styles, (c) with one aggression measure (BPAQ) than with others, (d) in Eastern China than in Central or Western China, and (e) for college students, smaller for senior high school students, and smallest for junior high school and primary school students. Negative parenting style’s link with aggression was stronger (a) in Central China than in Western China and (b) for males than for females. Also, positive parenting style’s link with aggression was larger for junior high school students than primary school students.