ABSTRACT
In a number of studies, parents’ child-rearing styles have been related to the aggressive behavior that children display outside the home, especially in school, as well as to their antisocial behavior as adolescents and adults. In two large-scale longitudinal investigations, conducted in different areas of the United States and in four other countries with 6-and 8-year-old children, parental rejection of the child, punishment for aggression by the child, and lack of identification of the child with the parent were related independently both to contemporaneous behavior in school and to adult behavior. However, regression analyses seem to indicate that the parent behaviors were more likely a response to the aggression of the child than an instigation to aggression by the child. The best predictor to adult aggression and antisocial behavior was the extent of child aggression, regardless of parental behavior.
