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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this study by Wall and Holden was to examine the function of family, parent, and child factors as predictors of aggressive, assertive and submissive behaviors in pre-school age children in disadvantaged, inner city families.
METHODOLOGY:
A quasi-experimental design was employed for this study. A primary analysis of cross sectional data was conducted by the authors to determine the frequency of aggressive, assertive and submissive behaviors in pre-school, disadvantaged, inner city children. Participants in the study consisted of 85 mother-child dyads. The authors reported that the sample was 94% African-American. Mean age of mothers was 26.6 yrs (SD=4.6 yrs), and mean age of children was 57 months (SD 6.7 mnths). The mean SES level for the families attending the clinic, based on the Hollingshead Four-Factor Index, was 23.7 (SD=10.4). The sample was selected according to the physical and mental wellbeing of children who were attending a pediatric primary care clinic for impoverished families in inner city Baltimore, MD. Upon recruitment, the authors conducted structured interviews with parents to obtain information on the health status of the children. Children diagnosed with a developmental disability, who were special education participants at preschool, or who suffered a chronic physical illness were eliminated from the study. A number of parent report measures were also completed. The Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock & Erbaugh, 1961) was used to measure maternal distress. The authors reported high reliability and validity for this measure. Maternal anger was assessed using the Multi-dimensional Anger Inventory (Siegal, 1986). The authors reported high reliability and concurrent validity for this instrument. Family stress level was measured using the Family Inventory of Life Events (McCubbin & Patterson, 1981). High test-retest reliability and acceptable concurrent validity was reported by the authors for this measure. The Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1990) was used to measure sources and extent of stress in the parent-child relationship. The authors stated that acceptable reliability and validity had previously been reported for this questionnaire. Mothers' perceptions of their child's aggressive behaviors were measured using the raw score on the Aggression variable of the parent form of the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983). The authors reported that substantial evidence was available for the reliability and validity of this measure. No reliability or validity scores were provided for the above mentioned measuring instruments. Observational data was collected from 21 minute video-taped sessions of mother-child dyads at play. The authors reported interrater reliability to be .91 for aggressive behavior, .82 for assertive behavior, .99 for submissive behavior. The frequency of children's aggressive, assertive and submissive behaviors was scored using a modified version of the Behavior Checklist developed by Deluty (1985). Specific definitions of aggressiveness, assertiveness and submissiveness were not provided.
The authors hypothesized that 1) disadvantaged women would exhibit higher than normal levels of depression, anger and stress, 2) higher levels of maternal distress would be associated with aggressive and assertiveness in disadvantaged pre-school children, and 3) relations between predictor variables and behavioral types would be moderated by sex. A series of t-tests and multiple regression analyses were utilized to analyze the data.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The authors conducted t-tests between data obtained in this study and published normative data. The authors found that there were significantly higher levels of life stress, parenting stress and anger exhibited in the sample in this study when compared with norms. The authors reported that a series of multiple regression analyses revealed a main effect of gender on children's assertive behavior; boys were significantly more assertive than girls. Multiple regression analyses also revealed that child gender moderated relations between maternal depression and children's aggressive behaviors; boys were significantly less aggressive at higher maternal depression levels and girls' aggressive behavior was constant across maternal depression levels. Boys were significantly more aggressive than girls at low maternal depression levels. Girls were significantly more aggressive than boys when maternal depression levels were equal to or greater than mean levels. Child gender also significantly moderated relations between maternal depression and children's assertive behavior; boys were less assertive at higher maternal depression levels. Girls exhibited constant levels of assertiveness across maternal depression levels. The authors reported that, again, boys were significantly more assertive than girls when maternal depression was low and significantly less assertive than girls when maternal depression levels exceeded the mean. Finally, gender significantly moderated the association between maternal anger and children's submissive behavior; boys were less submissive at high maternal anger levels. Girls displayed constant rates of submissive behavior across maternal anger levels. Boys were significantly more submissive than girls at low maternal anger levels but were significantly less submissive than girls when maternal anger levels equalled or exceeded the mean.
The authors reported that this study differed from other studies that measure children's aggressive behavior since 1) it was a study on pre-school aged children, 2) it employed a mostly African-American and impoverished sample, and 3) a behavior rating scale to reliably distinguish between aggressive and assertive behaviors was employed. The authors claimed that this allowed aggressive, assertive and submissive behaviors to be examined as separate constructs.
The authors stated that their hypotheses were only partially confirmed in this study. The authors reported that children's gender was the only significant predictor of aggressive, assertive and submissive behaviors. The authors stated that, unlike other studies, SES failed to contribute significantly towards children's aggressive behavior.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors suggested that the results of this study should be interpreted carefully since 1) bias may exist in the results due to heterogeneity in SES levels exhibited in the sample, 2) although interaction effects were significant they still only accounted for relatively small amounts of variance in the findings, and 3) the employment of cross-sectional methodology prevents the researchers from inferring causal relationships between pre-schoolers' behaviors and parental characteristics. The authors concluded by recommending that longitudinal studies be utilized for this type of research in the future.
(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)
Maryland
Preschool Student
Early Childhood
Child Aggression
Child Behavior
Child Problem Behavior
Aggression Causes
Behavior Causes
Socioeconomic Factors
Urban Youth
Low Income Youth
Family Relations
Family Environment
Parent Child Relations
Mother Child Relations
Adult Anger
Adult Mother
Adult Female
Adult Parent
Adult Depression
Anger Effects
Depression Effects
Stress Effects
Child Stress
Child Male
Child Female
Assertiveness
Submissive Behavior
Gender Differences
Male Aggression
Male Behavior
Female Aggression
Female Behavior
Parent Anger
Parent Depression
Mother Depression
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