A cross‐lagged model of the link between parental psychological control and adolescent aggression

Abstract

Introduction:The present study investigated the longitudinal relationship between parental psychological control and adolescent aggression in Chinese adolescents. We also explored whether adolescent gender plays a moderating role in this relationship. Methods: A total of 2458 adolescents (mean age = 13.20 ± 0.65 years; 51.3% male) from Beijing, China, participated at three time points during middle school, 1 year apart. Parental psychological control, adolescent aggression, and demographic characteristics were self-reported at each time point. A cross-lagged model was conducted. Results & conclusions:The results showed that adolescent aggression at Time 1 positively predicted parental psychological control at Time 2. Parental psychological control at Time 2 positively predicted adolescent aggression at Time 3. Adolescent aggression at Time 2 predicted parental psychological control at Time 3. These findings provide evidence that supports the reciprocal effects model and further our understanding of the longitudinal and bidirectional relationship between parental psychological control and adolescent aggression. No significant adolescent gender differences were found in terms of the reciprocal effect model.

“If You Love Me, You Must Do...” Parental Psychological Control and Cyberbullying Perpetration Among Chinese Adolescents

“…The total effect model revealed that PPC was associated with cyberbullying among Chinese adolescents, which supported Hypothesis 1. This result supported SDT (Deci & Ryan, 2008), and is also consistent with the results of empirical studies testing relationships between PPC and other externalizing problems (He et al, 2019). The emotionally manipulative and autonomy-inhibiting nature of PPC might provide a potential explanation of why PPC was associated with externalizing problems such as cyberbullying (Yan et al, 2020).…”

“…Several studies have supported this view. For example, PPC has been verified to be associated with aggression (He et al, 2019), a crucial risk factor for cyberbullying (Song et al, 2019). Furthermore, an authoritarian parental style, namely applying punitive and harsh practices, is also closely related to both cyberbullying and cybervictimization (Makri-Botsari & Karagianni, 2014).…”

Witnessing intimate partner violence and cyberbullying among Chinese adolescents: The mediating effect of self-control and moderating effect of parental psychological control

“…In PPC, parents invade children's inner world, ignore their emotions, restrict their expression, and control them through withdrawal of love and inducing of guilt to make children's thoughts, behaviors, and emotions consistent with their own requirements (Barber, 2002). Blossom et al (2016) showed that PPC positively predicted adolescents' externalizing problems significantly, such as bullying and aggression and those problems worsened with the increase of PPC (He et al, 2019). Parents who practice psychological control regard their children as an extension of their own development rather than as an independent individual, which makes it difficult for their children to develop a high sense of selfefficacy and identity (Miri & Limor, 2018).…”

Perceived parental psychological control predicts intraindividual decrements in self-regulation throughout adolescence.

“…Over time, the exposure to these pressures and the experience of introjected motivational states will frustrate adolescents’ psychological needs for autonomy, potentiating psychological disruptions and symptoms of psychopathology. Indeed, studies implicate parental psychological control as one of the most consistently problematic parenting behaviors with regard to adolescent adjustment, predicting various externalizing problems, such as aggression, drug use, truancy, and delinquency (He, Yuan, Sun, & Bian, 2019; Pinquart, 2017a), and especially internalizing problems, such as lower levels of self-esteem and greater levels of depression and anxiety (Pinquart, 2017b; Rogers et al, 2019; Soenens, Park, Vansteenkiste, & Mouratidis, 2012)…”