Mothers' Reactions to Preschoolers' Proactive and Reactive Aggressive Behaviours

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine mothers' emotional reactions, causal attributions, and socialization strategies in response to preschool children's engagement in proactive and reactive physical aggression with peers during free play at school. Participants were 84 mothers (M age = 31.83, SD = 4.48) with preschool-aged children (M age = 4.92, SD = 0. 97), residing in Ankara, Turkey. Supporting our expectations, mothers reacted with negative emotions to both functions of aggressive behaviours, with less anxiety, disappointment, embarrassment, and guilt for reactive aggression. They also believed that reactive aggression is more contextually dependent and intentional and reported more indirect (e.g., asking the child, teacher, or other children to find out more about the situation and aggressive episode) and otheroriented strategies (e.g., telling the other child to behave properly) to address these behaviours. Overall, our findings suggest that Turkish mothers' feelings, perceptions, and socialization approaches to childhood aggression vary depending on the functions of aggression, and mothers perceive preschool-aged children's engagement in reactive aggression in the school setting as relatively more acceptable than proactive aggression.

Culturally shared and unique meanings and expressions of maternal control across four cultures.

“…Turkish mothers were more likely to utilize nonphysical punishment (i.e., take away privileges, time-out) with boys than girls and show their serious and stern attitude (i.e., express seriousness through facial and vocal expressions) with girls than boys. Although these findings are contrary to some previous studies showing no gender differences in parental control strategies among Turkish families (e.g., Bayram Özdemir & Cheah, 2015, 2017), specific gender-based expectations may still prevail to an extent when mothers enforce noncoercive strategies in Turkey (Kağıtçıbaşı & Ataca, 2005). Turkish mothers’ specific control practices may change due to perceived gender differences in child temperament.…”

“…However, many studies have also found no gender differences in maternal control across various ethnic groups, including European American, Chinese, and Turkish families with younger children (Bayram Özdemir & Cheah, 2015, 2017; Cheah et al, 2018; Endendijk et al, 2016; Nacak et al, 2011; Pettit et al, 2001; Vu et al, 2018). The lack of child gender differences in maternal control may be due to the young age of the children in the studies, or these more recent studies may reflect contemporary mothers’ encouragement of egalitarian gender role orientations and promote their children’s success and global development because of societal changes in gender role (Leaper, 2015; Vu et al, 2018).…”

“…As a result, Turkish parents tend to be indulgent with their young children and view interdependence and obedience to parents as important but also emphasize and acknowledge the need to raise self-autonomous children (Durgel et al, 2013; Kağıtçıbaşı & Ataca, 2005; Yağmurlu et al, 2009). Reflecting these social changes, contemporary Turkish mothers use less harsh and controlling strategies and provide reasoning to their children, express warmth, and verbally praise their children to reinforce positive behaviors (Akçinar & Baydar, 2014; Bayram Özdemir & Cheah, 2015, 2017; Kağıtçıbaşı, 1996; Kırcaali-Iftar, 2005), which reflect continued consideration of emotional closeness and relatedness with their children along with increasing attention to child autonomy.…”

Relations between forms and functions of aggression and moral judgments of aggressive transgressions

“…In our preliminary analyses, we observed an inverse pattern regarding frequencies of aggression subtypes and the severity of moral judgments of these subtypes, such that less frequent subtypes of aggression were judged more harshly. This finding is consistent with previous literature in which adults' endorse stronger reactions to children's acts of physical or proactive aggression than to relational or reactive aggression (Bayram Özdemir & Cheah, 2017; Swit, McMaugh, & Warburton, 2018; Werner, Senich, & Przepyszny, 2006). Furthermore, for our first hypothesis, we expected to find specificity between subtypes of aggressive behavior and judgments of subtypes of aggressive behavior.…”

“…This finding is consistent with previous literature in which adults' endorse stronger reactions to children's acts of physical or proactive aggression than to relational or reactive aggression (Bayram Özdemir & Cheah, 2017;Swit, McMaugh, & Warburton, 2018;Werner, Senich, & Przepyszny, 2006). Furthermore, for our first hypothesis, we expected to find specificity between subtypes of aggressive behavior and judgments of subtypes of aggressive behavior.…”