Title:
The predictive value of the child's relationship with the primary caregivers on relational aggression perpetration in the peer context
Author:
Saba Shahid
Thesis Advisor:
Alison Papadakis
Committee Member:
Beth Kotchick
Committee Member:
Carolyn Barry
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola University Maryland
Date Created:
2013
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
born digital
Abstract:
Relational aggression (RA), the act of manipulating a peer relationship to inflict harm, is common with 27% of adolescents in a nationally representative sample reporting perpetrating relational aggression. Children who engage in RA are at risk for future psychosocial adjustment problems, including delinquency, anxiety, and depression, which points to the importance of studying factors that predict RA. Previous research on parenting predictors of RA suggests that parental affect, parental coercion, and parenting style are all relevant. The existing literature on the impact of parental psychological control, however, is inconsistent. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to clarify the relation between preadolescents’ RA and parental psychological control and whether this relation might vary based on the genders of the parent and preadolescent. Further, parental acceptance, as an index of parental attachment, was examined as a possible mediating variable. Participants were 260 middle school students between 10 and 14 years old attending parochial schools. Significant correlations were observed between the participants’ reports of parental, paternal, and maternal psychological control variables and self-reported RA, as well as between parental and maternal psychological control and teacher-reported RA. The association between maternal psychological control and selfreported RA was stronger for boys than girls. Parental acceptance did not significantly mediate the relation between psychological control and RA but, in post-hoc analyses, maternal psychological control did significantly mediate the relation between maternal acceptance and self-reported RA. No other combinations of the mediation model were significant. These findings suggest that parental psychological control may be an important intervention target to reduce preadolescent engagement in RA, particularly for boys. Implications of these findings for intervention and prevention programs are discussed in the context of current theory about relational aggression.
Degree:
Doctor of Clinical Psychology
Level:
Doctoral
Discipline:
Psychology
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online.
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Identifier:
ShahidS-13
