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Abstract
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Seventeen Hispanic elementary schoolboys with violent behavior problems were compared with 27 matched control students who were not overtly violent at school. Violent boys were significantly more likely to not live with their fathers, to have unmarried parents, to have more siblings, and to have fathers who never show them affection. Parents of violent boys were more likely than those of matched control students to use spanking for discipline and to admit that they rarely express affection for their sons.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this article by Sheline et al. was to identify parenting practices and family characteristics which may lead to violent behavior in elementary school boys.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors employed a quasi-experimental research design in this study. The subjects in the study included two groups of boys in grades 2 through 5 at an inner-city elementary school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The students in the school were predominantly Hispanic and low-income. The experimental group in the study was made up of boys who had received two or more infractions from teachers during the first semester of school for fighting, bringing weapons to school, or exhibiting any other form of violent behavior. For each of these boys, two boys from their class in school of the same age and ethnicity were selected to participate in the control group. The boys selected for the control group were those who met this criteria and whose names appeared closest to the experimental boy's name on the class roster. Control students were removed from the sample if they or their siblings had been written up for a violent offense during the same semester or if they were new to the school. There were 17 boys in the experimental group and 27 in the control group. Both groups of boys were administered a 65-item questionnaire containing questions about their family (e.g., number of siblings) and their relations with their parents (e.g., whether or not their parents displayed affection). Parents who identified themselves as the primary caretakers of the boys were interviewed by trained schoolteachers using a 21-item questionnaire. This questionnaire contained items about discipline (e.g., whether or not they spanked their child), displays of pride or affection, and other parenting behaviors (e.g., amount of television the child was permitted to watch). Sixteen (out of 17) parents of boys in the experimental group participated compared to 25 (out of 27) parents of boys in the control group.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
It was found that boys who exhibited violent behavior in school had significantly different family situations than boys in the control group. For example, violent boys were 11 times more likely to not live with their fathers, and 6 times more likely to have parents who were not married. The violent boys were also found to have twice as many siblings as the control group boys.
The violent boys were found to have different relations with their parents than the non-violent boys. Violent boys reported that their fathers or male guardians never showed affection significantly more than the boys in the control group, and they also reported that their fathers did not show pride in or affection toward them more frequently than the control group boys. The parents of both groups of boys responded in a similar fashion, with the primary caretakers of the violent boys significantly more likely to express that they never expressed pride or affection to their child. Furthermore, the parents of violent children were more likely to report spanking their children than the control parents.
The authors concluded that boys from homes with absent fathers, divorced parents, or numerous siblings were more at risk for violent behavior than their peers from smaller families with both parents present. Furthermore, it was argued that parenting practices are more important than socioeconomic status in predicting juvenile delinquency because lack of affection by parents, especially fathers, and the use of spanking for discipline were found to be the strongest predictors of violent behavior in boys.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors recommended that intervention programs focus on teaching parents to show affection toward their children and to use alternative methods of discipline.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
Family Environment
Family Relations
Violence Risk Factors
Violence Causes
Family Risk Factors
Child Male
Child Violence
Child Offender
Elementary School Student
Grade 2
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
Middle Childhood
Late Childhood
New Mexico
Male Violence
Male Offender
Urban School
Urban Youth
Hispanic Child
Hispanic Male
Hispanic Violence
Hispanic Offender
Parent Child Relations
Parenting Skills |