Perceived maternal control and support as predictors of hostile-biased attribution of intent and response selection in aggressive boys

Perceived Maternal Control and Support: Effects on Hostile Biased Social Information Processing and Aggression among Clinic‐referred Children with High Aggression

“…The criterion for participant selection was at least a T score of 60 on the Aggression Factor. The cutoff level is comparable to that used in our previous study (Gomez & Gomez, 2000). In relation to the final sample involved in the study, 48 participants had Aggression Factor T scores above 70, 21 participants had T scores between 65 and 69, and the remaining 20 participants had T scores between 60 and 64.…”

“…In phase 1, participants completed, on an individual basis, a self-rating questionnaire measuring their perceptions of both control and support from their mothers. As in our previous study (Gomez & Gomez, 2000), these were measured using the scales adopted in the study by Stice, Barrera, and Chassin (1993). As in that study, participants' perceptions of control from their mothers were measured using the nonreward and inconsistent discipline subscale of the Child Report of Parental Behavior Inventory, originally constructed by Schaefer (1965).…”

“…Consistent with this view, Demorest (1992) has suggested that maladjusted children have a greater tendency than nonmalad-514 R. GOMEZ et al justed children to use excessive levels of unpleasant and negative scripts and schemas, and that they will use them even when dealing with events that are not negative. These arguments imply that aggressive children's latent cognitive structures involving negative relational schemas and scripts will influence their processing of social cues and behaviours (Crick & Dodge, 1994 ;Gomez & Gomez, 2000).…”

“…In a recent study, we tested the associations between children's perceptions of maternal control and support to them with their hostile biased social information processing (Gomez & Gomez, 2000). The participants were 9and 10-year-old children from the general community, who were rated by their teachers as having aggression levels of at least 1 SD above the normative mean on the Conners's IOWA Rating Scale (Loney & Milich, 1982).…”

“…Using a longitudinal study, we examined whether hostile biases in attribution of intent and response selection were predicted by children's perceived maternal control and support. Unlike our previous study that used a community sample (Gomez & Gomez, 2000), the current study used clinic-referred children, rated by parents as having aggression levels of at least a T score (i.e. 1 SD) above the normative mean.…”