The Relationship between Family Violence and Self-Control in Adolescence: A Multi-Level Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Theoretical studies propose an association between family violence and low self-control in adolescence; however, empirical findings of this association are inconclusive. The aim of the present research was to systematically summarize available findings on the relation between family violence and self-control across adolescence. We included 28 studies with 143 effect sizes, representing more than 25,000 participants of eight countries from early to late adolescence. Applying a three-level meta-analysis, taking dependency between effect sizes into account while retaining statistical power, we examined the magnitude and direction of the overall effect size. Additionally, we investigated whether theoretical moderators (e.g., age, gender, country), and methodological moderators (e.g., time lag between family violence and self-control, informant) influenced the magnitude of the association between family violence and self-control. Our results revealed that family violence and self-control have a small to moderate significant negative association (r = −0.191). This association did not vary across gender, country, and informants. The strength of the association, however, decreased with age and in longitudinal studies. This finding provides evidence that researchers and clinicians may expect low self-control in the wake of family violence, especially in early adolescence. Recommendations for future research in the area are discussed.

The Association Between School Discipline and Self-Control From Preschoolers to High School Students: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis

“…Such imbalances in the development of self-control underline the need to examine the role of different types of self-control in the “school discipline–self-control” association. Therefore, in this study, we not only operationalize self-control as general self-control, as many other meta-analyses about self-control did (De Ridder et al, 2012; Li et al, 2019; Willems et al, 2019; Willems, Li, et al, 2018), but we also differentiate between different types of self-control and examine whether the type of self-control moderates the association between school discipline and self-control.…”

“…Although self-control has biological underpinnings, existing studies have also suggested that self-control can be substantially shaped by the environment (Willems, Dolan, et al, 2018; Willems et al, 2019). Many studies have considered family as the primary context that nurtures child and adolescent self-control (Davis et al, 2017; Karreman et al, 2006; Li et al, 2019; Pallini et al, 2018; Willems, Li, et al, 2018). Besides family, the school is another important developmental context for children when they start formal education (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Downer et al, 2010).…”

The Heritability of Self-Control: a Meta-Analysis

“…Yet, not all individuals develop the same levels of selfcontrol, which begs the question: 'where do these individual differences come from?'. While the effects of the environment on such individual differences are well documented (Bridgett et al, 2015;Pallini et al, 2018;Willems et al, 2018b), the research on genetic influences on selfcontrol is more nascent. The aim of this study is therefore to perform a meta-analysis to provide a quantitative overview of the heritability of self-control.…”

Parental Style, Dating Violence and Gender

“…In addition, these parental practices have been associated with serious behavioral and psychosocial adjustment problems in adolescents, variables that are closely linked to violence in couple relationships [25]. By contrast, the behaviors and attitudes that represent healthy family functioning (cohesion, support, and positive communication) are related to good psychological and emotional development in the children [26,27].…”