Angry and aggressive behavior across three generations: a prospective, longitudinal study of parents and children.
This investigation examined intergenerational continuities in both angry, aggressive parenting and also the angry, aggressive behavior of children and adolescents. Data from 75 G2 youth (26 men, 49 women, M = 22-years old), their mothers (G1), and their G3 children (47 boys, 28 girls, M = 2.4-years old) were included in the analyses. The prospective, longitudinal design of the study, which included observational and multiinformant measures, overcame many of the methodological limitations found in much of the earlier research on intergenerational transmission. The results demonstrated a direct connection between observed G1 aggressive parenting and observed G2 aggressive parenting from 5 to 7 years later. G2 aggressive behavior as an adolescent and G3 aggressive behavior as a child were related to parenting behavior but not directly to one another. The results were consistent with a social learning perspective on intergenerational continuities in angry and aggressive behaviors.
Department of Human and Community Development, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA. rdconger@ucdavis.edu
Rand D
RD
Conger
Tricia
T
Neppl
Kee Jeong
KJ
Kim
Laura
L
Scaramella
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression; D000786:Anger; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires