How and why children change in aggression and delinquency from childhood to adolescence: moderation of overreactive parenting by child personality.

BACKGROUND

This study examines how and why children change in aggression and delinquency from age 6 to 15 years. Besides assessing the shape of the developmental trajectories of aggression and delinquency, we investigated whether child personality characteristics, parenting, and interactions between these two predict the development of aggression/delinquency.

METHODS

Employing a cohort-sequential design, data from the Flemish Study on Parenting, Personality, and Development were used. The sample consisted of 586 children aged 6-9 years at the first assessment, and their parents. Mothers, fathers, and teachers rated child personality at Time 1 using the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children, and mothers and fathers rated externalizing behaviors at the first, second, and third assessment using the Child Behavior Checklist. Parents rated their own overreactive parenting at Time 1 with the Parenting Scale.

RESULTS

Aggression and delinquency showed differential, though interrelated development. Less extraverted, benevolent and conscientious children, and more imaginative children were more susceptible to overreactivity. The model replicated across fathers' overreactivity.

CONCLUSIONS

Parents of children who are less extraverted, benevolent and conscientious, or more imaginative, are in particular need of being supported in developing and maintaining effective disciplinary techniques.