Abstract
The principal aim of this study is to explore the moderating role of temperament in the relationship between parenting style and the reactive and proactive aggressive behavior of 8-year-old children. The participants are 279 children (154 boys and 125 girls). To measure reactive and proactive aggression, children completed the reactive and proactive questionnaire (RPQ). Child temperament and parenting styles were evaluated by both parents using the temperament in middle childhood questionnaire (TMCQ) and the parenting styles and dimensions questionnaire (PSDQ). The results revealed that boys with high surgency levels and authoritarian fathers displayed more reactive aggression, whereas behaviorally inhibited boys with mothers who scored low for authoritarian parenting displayed less reactive aggression. Finally, girls with high levels of effortful control and mothers who scored low for authoritative parenting displayed more proactive aggression. The results highlight the value of studying the moderating role of temperament in the relationship between children’s aggressive behavior and both mothers’ and fathers’ parenting styles, and underscores the importance of doing so separately for boys and girls.
Highlights
Aggressive behavior is viewed as a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon [1] rooted in the interaction of prenatal factors, characteristics associated with the individual characteristics of the child and various aspects of the social environment [2].Research focusing on this behavior has identified different subtypes in accordance with different criteria
We believe that deepening the study of the interactions between temperamental characteristics, such as effortful control and emergence and parenting styles in early stages of development, is very relevant given the contradictory data regarding the direction of such interactions. Based on these antecedents and the extant research into child aggression in relation to family context and children’s temperament, the present study aims to determine whether possible interactions between temperament dimensions and parenting styles explain reactive and proactive aggressive behavior among children
The results obtained in the present study indicate that surgency, behavioral inhibition and effortful control moderate the relationship between adverse parenting styles and aggressive behavior among children
Summary
Aggressive behavior is viewed as a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon [1] rooted in the interaction of prenatal factors, characteristics associated with the individual characteristics of the child (genetic, physiological and psychological) and various aspects of the social environment [2]. Research focusing on this behavior has identified different subtypes in accordance with different criteria. Reactive aggression, known as impulsive or spur-of-the-moment aggression, refers to the set of aggressive actions carried out in response to a stimulus that is perceived as threatening or provoking [6] It is characterized by high emotional valence and the physiological activation of the fight–flight response [7]
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