Longitudinal effects of maternal love withdrawal and guilt induction on Chinese American preschoolers’ bullying aggressive behavior

Abstract

Bullying has been understudied among preschool children, especially those from Chinese American families. Previous research has also neglected the dimensional effects of psychological control on child bullying development. This study examined two psychological control dimensions, love withdrawal and guilt induction, and their effects on children's bullying aggressive behavior using a longitudinal design. Participants were first-generation Chinese American mothers (N = 133; mean age [Mage] = 37.82) and their preschool children (Mage = 4.48). Chinese immigrant mothers reported their psychologically controlling parenting and teachers rated children's bullying aggressive behaviors in the school setting. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to establish the psychometric properties and cross-wave measurement equivalence of the study constructs. Cross-lagged structural equation modeling analysis indicated that maternal love withdrawal prospectively predicted more bullying aggressive behavior, whereas guilt induction predicted less bullying aggressive behavior in children 6 months later. These results held after controlling for the initial level of children's problem behaviors and demographic variables (child age, gender, and maternal education). For child effects, child bullying aggressive behavior predicted more maternal guilt induction over time but not love withdrawal. Our findings highlight the importance of construct specificity and cultural context in understanding associations between parenting and child development.

The Influence of Personality Traits on School Bullying: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…Research studies provided the evidence of highly significant effects of parenting interventions on bullying reduction . And some studies indicated that maternal love withdrawal prospectively predicted more aggressive bullying behaviors, whereas guilt induction predicted lower levels of aggressive bullying behaviors in children 6 months later (Yu et al, 2019). Therefore, bullying behaviors can be prevented by establishing a good parent-child relationship.…”

How are parenting practices associated with bullying in adolescents? A cross‐sectional study

“…However, longitudinal research analysing parenting factors in pre-school and primary school children with Attention-deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) showed that higher levels of parental support for child autonomy were associated with a fall in the bullying rates among children over the five-year study (Rajendran, Kruszewski, & Halperin, 2016). Another longitudinal study found that maternal love withdrawal prospectively predicted more aggressive bullying behaviour, but child aggressive bullying behaviour did not predict love withdrawal (Yu, Cheah, Hart, Yang, & Olsen, 2019). Our study showed preliminary evidence of the association between parenting practices and bullying involvement (especially, for cyberbullying).…”

Children's cognitive appraisal moderates associations between psychologically controlling parenting and children's depressive symptoms

“…Parental love withdrawal centers on manipulating feelings of parental acceptance by the threat of or actual temporary withdrawal of love and attention (Barber, 1996; Mascolo, Fischer, & Li, 2003; Wu et al, 2002). We thus proposed that love withdrawal have negative connotations and implications for children's development whereas guilt induction and shaming may have more benign or even positive influences on Chinese children's development (Hoffman & Saltzstein, 1967; Rudy et al, 2014; Yu, Cheah, Hart, & Yang, 2018a; Yu, Cheah, Hart, Yang, & Olsen, 2018b, pp. 1–9).…”