Parent and Child Influences on Relational Aggression during Early Childhood

Relational aggression is defined as inflicting harm through damage, threat, or control of relationships such as friendships (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995). Engagement in relationally aggressive behavior places children at risk for negative social-emotional outcomes, such as peer rejection and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Therefore, it is of particular importance to study the development, including the antecedents, onset, course, and underlying driving factors of relational aggression in childhood. Early childhood in particular is an incredibly important time for the development of several key cognitive and social developmental tasks, which make it an especially critical time for investigating parental influences and the development of relational aggression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of parenting as well as the influence of child specific factors in early childhood as predictors of concurrent child relational aggression. Given that parenting is especially central during this period, it is important to investigate both parent and child risk factors. In particular, the role of child factors such as social impairment (e.g., having difficulties with peers) and cognitive biases that increase the risk of aggressive behavior (i.e., hostile intent attributions) were examined. Further, negative parenting practices as well as the parent-child relationship were considered as potential predictors. Participants were 85 families from a community sample of preschool aged children. Regression models were examined predicting parent-reported child aggression. Child gender was entered at step 1, child-reported aggressive cognitive biases, parent-reported child impairment, and parent social desirability were entered at step 1, parent-child conflict was entered at step 2, and harsh discipline as well as the insecurity of the attachment relationship were entered at step 3. Child cognitive biases (β=.22, p=.08) tended to predict relational aggression and parent social desirability (β=-.33, p<.01) significantly negatively predicted child aggression [F(5, 79)=2.60, p<.05] at the first step. In the second step, parent-child conflict (β=.26, p<.05) predicted aggression [ΔF(1, 78)=5.48, p<.05]. In the final step, both insecure attachment (β=.29, p<.01) and harsh discipline (β=.24, p<.05) significantly predicted child aggression [ΔF(2, 76)=4.34, p<.05]. This has implications for intervention and prevention efforts both for parents and children in early childhood. Child cognitive biases as well as harsh parenting could serve as important areas to target. Further, given that the quality of the parent-child relationship in regards to conflict and attachment were predictors of relational aggression, this may also be an area for preventative intervention.