ABSTRACT
Family influences, particularly parenting influences, on the social and emotional development of children have played a central role in social learning theories of childhood and adolescent aggression for many years (Bandura & Walters, 1959; 1963; Sears, Maccoby, & Levin, 1957). No one has contributed more to research and theory in this tradition during the past three decades than Leonard Eron and Gerald Patterson. In the previous two chapters, these two outstanding scientists and their colleagues presented Findings from recent longitudinal studies that were designed, in part, to provide further insights into the nature of parental influences on aggressive children. This commentary highlights some of the interesting findings from their work and then discusses implications of this research for intervention approaches to the problems of aggressive and antisocial youth.
