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The Explanatory Mechanism of Child Impulsivity in the Bidirectional Associations between Parental Psychological Control and Child Physical Aggression

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Abstract

Objectives

Parental psychological control is a stressor that may provoke children’s aggression. However, whether there are bidirectional associations between parental psychological control and children’s physical aggression remains unclear, as does the mechanism underlying these associations. Using an autoregressive cross-lagged model, the present study tested (a) the extent to which parental psychological control predicts physical aggression and vice versa, and (b) whether child impulsivity explains this bidirectional association.

Methods

Data were collected across three time points (fall semester of 4th grade, spring semester of 4th grade, and fall semester of 5th grade). A sample of 689 children (385 boys, 304 girls) completed questionnaires regarding parental psychological control, impulsivity and physical aggression. Gender, age and socioeconomic status were controlled in the analyses.

Results

As hypothesized, the findings showed that there was a direct longitudinal connection from parental psychological control to child physical aggression, and the inverse relation was also significant. Moreover, the results demonstrated an indirect link from parental psychological control to physical aggression via child impulsivity, but the inverse effect was not significant.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that there is a reciprocal relationship between parental psychological control and children’s physical aggression, and that the parent-driven component of this bidirectional process is mediated by child impulsivity. The results have potential applied value for prevention and intervention.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31671154) to W.Z., Innovation Project of Graduate School of South China Normal University and Innovation Project of School of Psychology of South China Normal University to Y.C. (hsxly2017017). We would like to thank all the participants of our study and colleagues who assisted our study.

Author Contributions

Y.C.: designed and executed the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. J.Z.: designed the study, analyzed the data and wrote part of the results. C.Y.: designed the study and coordinated data collection. M.W. and Y.Z. assisted with the data collection and analyses. W.Z.: designed the study and edited the manuscript critically.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, Guangdong, China

    Yuanyuan Chen, Jianjun Zhu, Mengxia Wang, Yingxian Zhu & Wei Zhang

  2. Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, Guangdong, China

    Yuanyuan Chen, Jianjun Zhu, Mengxia Wang, Yingxian Zhu & Wei Zhang

  3. School of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Chengfu Yu

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  1. Yuanyuan Chen
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Correspondence to Wei Zhang.

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Chen, Y., Zhu, J., Yu, C. et al. The Explanatory Mechanism of Child Impulsivity in the Bidirectional Associations between Parental Psychological Control and Child Physical Aggression. J Child Fam Stud 29, 2039–2050 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01650-y

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