Noncompliance and child-rearing attitudes as predictors of aggressive behaviour: A longitudinal study in Chinese children

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to examine contributions of early personal and socialisation factors to the prediction of aggressive behaviour in Chinese children. A sample of children, initially at 2 years of age, and their parents in the People's Republic of China participated in this two-year longitudinal study. Observational data were collected on children's noncompliance in mother-child interactions at Time 1 and aggressive behaviour in peer interactions at Time 2. In addition, information concerning child-rearing attitudes were obtained from parental reports. The results indicated that boys had higher scores than girls on physical and verbal aggression at 4 years of age. Early noncompliance significantly and positively predicted aggressive behaviour. Parental child-rearing attitudes had unique, but generally weak, contributions to the prediction of aggression. Finally, the relations between child-rearing variables and child aggression might be different for boys and girls.