Parenting practices, parental attachment and aggressiveness in adolescence: A predictive model

Abstract

The aim of this study was twofold: a) to test the mediation role of attachment between parenting practices and aggressiveness, and b) to clarify the differential role of mothers and fathers with regard to aggressiveness. A total of 554 adolescents (330 girls and 224 boys), ages ranging between 16 and 19, completed measures of mothers' and fathers' parenting practices, attachment to mother and to father, and aggressiveness. Acceptance/involvement of each parent positively predicted an adolescent's attachment to that parent, and coercion/imposition negatively predicted attachment to a lesser extent. Using structural equation modeling, a full mediation model provided the most parsimonious explanation for the data. With attachment in the model, the paths between the two parenting practices and aggressiveness were minor and statistically non‐significant. Only attachment to the father, was predictive of adolescents' aggressiveness. Results are discussed in the light of the importance of the father–son/daughter relationship in adolescence.

Young Adults’ Recollections of Parental Rejection and Self-Reported Aggression: The Mediating Roles of Insecure Adult Attachment and Emotional Dysregulation

“…We also hypothesized significant associations between both perceived father and mother rejection and aggression given previous research support (Khaleque and Rohner 2012;Gallarin and Alonso-Arbiol 2012). Interestingly, while perceived father and mother rejection were both significantly, positively correlated with aggression (as expected), these direct associations were no longer significant when incorporating the impact of insecure adult attachment and emotional dysregulation into the path model.…”

“…In addition to father acceptance/involvement having stronger negative correlations with direct and indirect forms of aggression than mother acceptance/involvement, father coercion/imposition (e.g., verbal and physical abusiveness) was a substantially stronger predictor of aggression than mother coercion/ imposition in a path model. Although there is evidence of similar mother-rejection and father-rejection relationships with aggression (e.g., Khaleque and Rohner 2012), there appears to be some support for a stronger father rejectionaggression link when father and mother contributions are simultaneously regressed in aggression models (e.g., Chang et al 2003;Gallarin and Alonso-Arbiol 2012). Given these findings, we predicted that perceived father rejection would have a stronger effect on aggression for both male and female young adults when compared with perceived mother rejection.…”

Attachment, parenting styles and bullying during pubertal years

“…Interventions that specifically focus on attachment issues in the father-adolescent relationship need more attention (Gallarin and Alonso-Arbiol 2012). Although further research is required to determine the extent to which a supportive father and punitive paternal practices affect development, involvement in interventions might equip fathers to augment the father-adolescent relationship (Antonopoulou, Alexopolous and Maridaki-Kassotaki 2012).…”

“…Insecure attachment is associated with parenting styles characterised by ambivalent (inconsistently responsive parenting), avoidant (unresponsive, detached parenting) or disorganised-disoriented attachment (unpredictable caregiving patterns) (Kokkinos 2013). Children build emotional and cognitive mental models based on the quality of early parent-child interactions (Gallarin and Alonso-Arbiol 2012). These are sets of internalised beliefs and expectations about oneself and others and the way in which individuals interact with other people (Bowlby 1973).…”

“…These sets of internalised beliefs and expectations about themselves and others determine the way individuals interact with other people in their environment (Bowlby 1973, Gallarin andAlonso-Arbiol 2012). Attachment processes can also be linked to parenting styles.…”