Abstract
Siblings’ influence on youth aggressive behavior has been found in previous studies, but further research is needed in order to better understand both the shared relations between siblings’ levels of proactive and reactive subtypes of aggression as well as the factors contributing to this relationship, such as parent behavior. The current study extended the literature by examining the influence of older siblings’ proactive and reactive aggression on younger siblings and whether these associations were influenced by levels of observed parental criticism. Participants were 50 parent–child dyads. Children in each dyad (52% female; 76% Caucasian) were between the ages of 10 and 15 (M = 11.52; SD = 1.25). Parent-reported measures of their younger and older siblings’ proactive and reactive aggression were collected. Next, parents and the younger child engaged in a conversation task which was coded for parental criticism using a modified version of the Family Interaction Task. Results demonstrated that older siblings’ reactive aggression was positively associated with younger siblings’ reactive aggression and that the strength of this influence depended on levels of parental criticism (β = 0.21; SE = 0.10; p 0.00), such that stronger sibling influence was observed at greater levels of parental criticism. No influence of older siblings’ levels of proactive aggression was evident. Findings suggest that the degree of parental criticism is particularly salient when examining the association between siblings’ aggression.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. http://search.proquest.com/docview/618050774?accountid=14556.
Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: asocial learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Barkley, R. A. (2013). Defiant children: a clinician’s manual for assessment and parent training. 3rd edition New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Berkowitz, L. (1978). Whatever happened to the frustration-aggression hypothesis? The American Behavioral Scientist, 32, 691–708.
Card, N. A., & Little, T. D. (2007). Differential relations of instrumental and reactive aggression with maladjustment: Does adaptivity depend on function? In P. H. Hawley, T. D. Little & P. C. Rodkin (Eds.), Aggression and adaptation: the bright side to bad behavior (pp. 107–134). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Dickson, D. J., Richmond, A. D., Brendgen, M., Vitaro, F., Laursen, B., Dionne, G., & Boivin, M. (2015). Aggression can be contagious: longitudinal associations between proactive aggression and reactive aggression among young twins. Aggressive Behavior, 41(5), 455–466.
Dodge, K. A., & Coie, J. D. (1987). Social-information-processing factors in reactive and proactive aggression in children’s peer groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1146–1158.
Dodge, K. A., Lochman, J. E., Harnish, J. D., Bates, J. E., & Pettit, G. S. (1997). Reactive and proactive aggression in school children and psychiatrically impaired chronically assaultive youth. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106(1), 37–51.
Fite, P. J., Craig, J., Colder, C. R., Lochman, J. E., & Wells, K. C. (2016). Proactive and reactive aggression. In R. J. R. Levesque (Ed.), Encyclopedia of adolescence. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
Frazer, A. L., & Fite, P. J. (2017). An examination of the appropriateness of an adapted version of the Family Interaction Macro-coding System psychological control scale. Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 2(2), 111–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/23794925.2017.1331720.
Han, Z. R., & Shaffer, A. (2014). Maternal expressed emotion in relation to child behavior problems: differential and mediating effects. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23, 1491–1500. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-104-9923-6.
Herts, K. L., McLaughlin, K. A., & Hatzenbuehler, M. L. (2012). Emotion dysregulation as a mechanism linking stress exposure to adolescent aggressive behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 40(7), 1111–1122.
Kramer, L. (2014). Learning emotional understanding and emotion regulation through sibling interaction. EarlyEducation and Development, 25(2), 160–184. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2014.838824.
Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33(1), 159–174.
Langevin, S., Proulx, J., & Lacourse, E. (2018). Sexual aggressors against Women’s sexual lives: a latent class analysis. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 62(6), 1430–1451. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X17694374.
Lee, K. H., Siegle, G. J., Dahl, R. E., Hooley, J. M., & Silk, J. S. (2015). Neural responses to maternal criticism in healthy youth. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10(7), 902–912. https://search-proquest-com.www2.lib.ku.edu/docview/1697763370?accountid=14556.
Lochman, J. E., & Wells, K. C. (2003). Effectiveness of the Coping Power program and of classroom intervention with aggressive children: outcomes at a 1-year follow-up. Behavior Therapy, 34, 493–515.
McHugh, M. L. (2012). Interrater reliability: the kappa statistic. Biochemia medica, 22(3), 276–282.
O’Brien, M. P., Zinberg, J. L., Bearden, C. E., Lopez, S. R., Kopelowicz, A., Daley, M., & Cannon, T. D. (2008). Parent attitudes and parent adolescent interaction in families of youth at risk for psychosis and with recent-onset psychotic symptoms. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 2(4), 268–276. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-7893.2008.00088.x.
Ozbek, D., Ozlem, O. T., Ekinci, G., & Midi, I. (2018). Risk of hemorrhage in ischemic stroke and its relationship with cerebral microbleeds. Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery, 168, 112–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clineuro.2018.03.007.
Patterson, G. R. (1986). The contribution of siblings to training for fighting: a microsocial analysis. In D. Olweus, J. Block & M. Radke-Yarro (Eds.), Development of antisocial and prosocial behavior: research, theories, and issues (pp. 235–261). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Patterson, G. R. (1982). Coercive family process. Eugene, OR: Castalia.
Patterson, G. R., Dishion, T. J., & Bank, L. (1984). Family interaction: a process model of deviancy training. Aggressive Behavior, 10(3), 253–267. https://doi.org/10.1002/1098-2337(1984)10:3<253::AID-AB2480100309>3.0.CO;2-2.
Patterson, G. R., Reid, J. B., & Dishion, T. J. (1992). Antisocial boys: a social interactional approach. Eugene, OR: Castalia.
Poulin, F., & Boivin, M. (2000). Reactive and proactive aggression: evidence of a two factor model. Psychological Assessment, 12, 115–122.
Rathert, J., Fite, P. J., & Gaertner, A. E. (2011). Associations between effortful control, psychological control and proactive and reactive aggression. Child Psychiatry & HumanDevelopment, 42(5), 609–621.
Skripkauskaite, S., Hawk, S. T., Branje, S. J., Koot, H. M., van Lier, P. A., & Meeus, W. (2015). Reactive and proactive aggression: differential links with emotion regulation difficulties, maternal criticism in adolescence. Aggressive Behavior, 41(3), 214–226.
Slomkowski, C., Rende, R., Conger, K. J., Simons, R. L., & Conger, R. D. (2001). Sisters, brothers, and delinquency: evaluating social influence during early and middle adolescence. Child Development, 72(1), 271–283.
Tippett, N., & Wolke, D. (2015). Aggression between siblings: associations with the home environment and peer bullying. Aggressive Behavior, 41(1), 14–24.
Vitaro, F., & Brendgen, M. (2012). Subtypes of aggressive behavior: etiologies, development, and consequences. In T. Bliesener, A. Beelmann & M. Stemmler (Eds.), Antisocial behavior and crime: Contributions of developmental and evaluation research to prevention and intervention (pp. 17–38). Cambridge, MA: Hogrefe Publishing.
Williams, S. T., Conger, K. J., & Blozis, S. A. (2007). The development of interpersonal aggression during adolescence: the importance of parents, siblings, and family economics. Child Development, 78(5), 1526–1542.
Yu, J. J., & Gamble, W. C. (2008). Familial correlates of overt and relational aggression betweenyoungadolescent siblings. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37(6), 655–673.
Author Contributions
A.F. contributed to the conceptual design of the study, ran the data analyses, and wrote the paper. P.F. coordinated data collection, contributed to the conceptual design of the study, and collaborated in writing and editing of the final manuscript. K.S. collaborated in writing and editing of the final manuscript. J.C. collaborated in writing and editing of the final manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional review board of the University of Kansas and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Frazer, A.L., Fite, P.J., Stone, K.J. et al. Parental criticism moderates sibling influence on proactive and reactive aggression. J Child Fam Stud 27, 4025–4032 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1210-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1210-5