Relational Aggression in Mothers and Children: Links with Psychological Control and Child Adjustment

Abstract

This study assesses associations between mothers' use of relational aggression with their peers and psychological control with their children, and child adjustment in a sample of fifty U.S. mothers of elementary and middle school children. Mothers completed surveys assessing their relational aggression and psychological control. Teachers completed surveys assessing children's externalizing behavior, internalizing symptoms, and relational aggression. Results suggest that mothers who are relationally aggressive with their peers are more likely to be psychologically controlling with their children. Results also showed that relational aggression predicted adjustment problems in youth. Relational aggression was associated with externalizing problems among boys and girls, and with internalizing problems among boys. Few gender differences in mean levels of maternal or child behaviors emerged.

Associations between parental psychological control and relational aggression in children and adolescents: A multilevel and sequential meta-analysis.

“…The latter allocates the allowable Type I error through a function based on the information fraction t. The information fraction t is the proportion of the HOIS accumulated at the particular interim analysis (n q /HOIS). The Type I error that is allocated to each interim analysis determines the boundary point b q as the critical Z value that corresponds to the allocated ␣ at interim analysis q. Sequential boundaries were constructed using an open-source software package (Reboussin, DeMets, Kim, & Lan, 2003). The program truncates boundaries at b ϭ 8 because it is highly unlikely to obtain a value greater than or equal to that point due to chance.…”

Relational aggression in adolescents: A review of theoretical and empirical research

“…However, studies on the associations between parenting and relational aggression have netted both positive and non-significant results with varying effect sizes (e.g., Reed, Goldstein, Morris, & Keyes, 2008). Nelson and Crick (2002) and Nelson, Hart, Yang, Olsen, and Jin (2006) found parental control related to girls' relational aggression.…”

Relational Aggression among Female African American Undergraduates: An Intersectional Perspective

“…The absence or weakening of this support by relationally aggressive behaviors within the family could have a number of unforeseen consequences, and bears further investigation. In this instance the foundational thinking about the role of family has already been established in relational aggression literature (Kawabata, Alink, Tseng, Van IJzendoorn, & Crick, 2011;Reed et al, 2008;Updegraff, Thayer, Whiteman, Denning, & Mchale, 2014), but needs to be extended into adult populations.…”

“…Relational aggression research among family members has focused on largely on children and adolescents (Kawabata et al, 2011), maternal use of relationally aggressive behaviors with peers (Reed et al, 2008), relational aggression between siblings (Updegraff et al, 2014), and parenting styles effect on children's relationally aggressive behavior (Kawabata et al, 2011) . While these behaviors are similar to those classified as psychologically controlling parenting (Reed et al, 2008), it would be beneficial to examine the effects of a threat of withdrawal of support from parents and the effects of relationally aggressive behaviors used by extended family members.…”

“…The majority of relational aggression studies focus on early to middle childhood (Crick & Nelson, 2002;Crick, Bigbee, & Howes, 2007;Giesbrecht, Leadbeater, & Macdonald, 2011;Peters, Cillessen, Riksen-Walraven, & Haselager, 2010;Reed, Goldstein, Morris, & Keyes, 2008), though certain studies have found evidence for relational aggression in adulthood (Bjorkqvist, Osterman, & Lagerspetz, 1994;Hess & Hagen, 2006;Loudin, Loukas, & Robinson, 2003;Weber & Kurpius, 2011). However, as with the majority of studies in this domain, these studies focused on gender differences, and did not examine other potentially explanatory factors such as race, socio-economic status, or cultural influences.…”