1. Objectifs

Intentions :
This «study was designed to examine the transactional effects of parental physical and verbal aggression and EP [externalizing problems] and IP [internalizing problems] from early school age to adolescence in a lower-income community sample from the Concordia Project, a long-term study offering unique opportunities to examine these effects.» (p. 1021)

Questions/Hypothèses :
Auhtors «hypothesized that transactional effects between child and parent behaviour would be identified. Both EP and IP were expected to be associated with increasing levels of parental aggression over time and vice-versa, but the child-driven effects of EP on parental aggression was expected to be stronger. Physical and verbal aggression were expected to be associated with one another. Finally, fewer cross-lagged effects were expected in the models using teachers’ than parents’ reports of EP and IP given their cross-informant nature and the fact that the verbal and physical aggression are enacted by parents and not teachers.» (p. 1020-1021)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«Families who participated in this study are a subsample (n=175) of the original Concordia Project sample (N=1774) comprised of French-speaking children (G1) recruited in grades 1, 4, and 7 growing up in lower-income neighborhoods in a large Canadian metropolitan area during the mid-70s (G1). […] The subsample used in the present study (n=175) includes the original participants (G1) and their spouses who had children aged 1–6 years old in 1996–1998 (G2), at the beginning of an intergenerational phase of the Concordia Project. […] The sample is predominantly French-Canadian (Québécois), with less than 5% of other ethnicities (e.g., Haitian, North African, Lebanese and Vietnamise).» (p. 1021-1022)

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

The «hypotheses were partially supported: when using mothers’ reports of EP, a transactional process was identified with physical aggression. A positive child-driven effect was identified with IP at T1 [time 1] as assessed by mothers predicting increased verbal aggression at T2. A transactional process was found between EP and parental aggression when using teachers’ reports; verbal aggression at T1 was associated with increased EP at T2 and EP at T2 were associated with increased physical aggression at T3. Further, verbal aggression at T2 was linked to increased IP at T3. The transactional effect identified between mothers reports of EP and physical aggression is consistent with results from previous studies and with conceptual models highlighting the presence of deleterious feedback loops involving aggressive interactions between parents and their children […].» (p. 1025) «Interestingly, for children presenting high levels of withdrawal, anxiety, and depressive symptoms according to their mothers (IP), only a childdriven effect between T1 and T2 was found with verbal aggression, and no cross-lagged associations appeared with physical aggression. Thus, internalizing symptomatology seems to elicit verbal aggression, but not physical aggression, on the part of the mothers, which could be explained by the more quiet nature of IP compared to EP.» (p. 1027)