Parenting Practices and Violence, Youth Violence

Quality of the Parent-Child Relationship

Children who experience rejection, neglect, or indifference from parents are more likely to display aggressive behavior. Neglectful or disengaged parents are unresponsive to the needs of children and demand little of them. Some evidence has found that neglected children actually show higher levels of subsequent violent behavior than physically abused children. One reason these children may engage in violence is to gain attention from their parents. In contrast, parents who are warm, supportive, and responsive have children who are less aggressive. The quality of the parent-child relationship also influences child aggression and violence by modifying the impact of parenting practices.

Discipline Practices

Consistent discipline practices have been linked to lower levels of aggression and violence. In contrast, problematic discipline practices and erratic expressions of anger promote aggression in children. Children become less inhibited about displaying aggression when discipline is inconsistent. In addition to learning theory accounts of this effect, another explanation is suggested by social control theory. Parents' use of harsh punishment is thought to prevent the internalization of moral standards by damaging the parent-child bond. Children who do not feel attached to their parents fail to internalize the parents' values and those of the society, resulting in poor self-control. Individuals with low self-control ignore potential long-term costs of aggressive behavior.

Corporal Punishment

The use of corporal punishment has been associated with increased aggression in children, especially [Page 504]among European Americans. Corporal punishment increases child aggression in various ways. First, when parents resort to physical means of controlling and punishing their children, they send a message that aggression is a normative, acceptable, and effective way to gain compliance. When corporal punishment is used in response to children's aggression, in essence, parents are punishing children with the very behavior they are trying to eliminate. This behavior, in turn, communicates to the child that it is acceptable to hit others when they behave in ways they do not like. Second, the use of this disciplinary tactic leads to avoidance of the disciplinary figure, reducing parental opportunities to direct and influence their child. Third, corporal punishment also promotes hostile attributions that, in turn, predict violent behavior. The way in which a child responds to a situation is a function of how the child interprets social information. Experience with harsh treatment from parents results in children who are hypervigilant to hostile cues, attribute hostile intent to others, access more aggression potential responses, and view aggression as a way to attain social benefits.

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