Parenting Influences on the Social Goals of Aggressive Children

Abstract

Although research has examined how parenting may influence children's social information processing, little research has examined how these factors may influence children's social goals. The current study examined how both parent- and child-reports of parenting behaviors were associated with regressed change in children's reported social goals over a one-year time period. Participants were 116 children (58.8% male), identified as being highly aggressive by their teachers in 4th grade, and their caregivers. Children's reports of positive parenting in 4th grade were positively associated with affiliation goals and negatively related to dominance and revenge goals in 5th grade, even after controlling for the corresponding goals in 4th grade. Additionally, parent-reported corporal punishment in 4th grade was positively related to dominance goals in 5th grade for boys, but not for girls. Results are discussed in terms of the possible ways that parenting may influence social goals.