Immediate and sustained effects of parenting on physical aggression in Canadian children aged 6 years and younger.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether the effects of factors associated with the development of childhood (aged 6 years or younger) physical aggression were immediate (cross-sectional), sustained (longitudinal), or both.


METHODS
A longitudinal subsample (n = 975) of children born between December 1994 and April 1995 was drawn from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth and followed from birth to 6 years of age. Using random- and fixed-effects logistic panel regression models, child (sex and preterm birth), maternal (education, employment, and positive or hostile/ineffective parenting), and family (lone-parent, older and younger siblings, and income) indicators were regressed on childhood physical aggression.


RESULTS
Hostile/ineffective parenting contributed significantly to explaining the variance in aggression. At each measurement time point (birth, 2, 4, and 6 years of age), a change in hostile/ineffective parenting had an effect on aggression, and this effect carried forward across time up to 6 years. Being a boy, having a mother with less education, and living in a lone-parent family with siblings also contributed significantly to aggression. Preterm birth, maternal employment, depressive symptoms, positive interaction, and income failed to contribute significantly to aggression.


CONCLUSIONS
These results support the hypothesis that hostile/ineffective parenting has an immediate effect on aggression. Contrary to predictions that it would have an immediate effect only at the time it was occurring, hostile/ineffective parenting had a sustained effect on aggression that carried forward in time up to 6 years of age. The results suggest that hostile/ineffective parenting has an effect on aggression prior to any evidence of aggressive behaviour in the child.
Benzies
Karen
K
Associate Professor, Faculty of Nursing, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta.
Keown
Leslie-Anne
LA
Magill-Evans
Joyce
J
D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D011594:Psychometrics; D013997:Time Factors; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*