Bidirectional associations between perceived parental support for violent and nonviolent responses and early adolescent aggressive and effective nonviolent behaviors.

The current study examined bidirectional relations between early adolescents' perceptions of parental support for violent and nonviolent responses to conflict and their aggressive and effective nonviolent behaviors six months later. Data was collected across the sixth and seventh grades for 520 adolescents at three middle schools in the southeastern United States. At baseline, participants were ages 10-14 (M = 11.29). Longitudinal path models showed that perceived parental support for violent responses was negatively associated with effective nonviolent behaviors and positively associated with aggressive behaviors across sixth and seventh grades. Across seventh grade, reciprocal negative relations were found between perceived parental support of nonviolent responses and aggressive behaviors. Effective nonviolent behaviors were positively associated with perceived parental support for nonviolent responses. Study implications include the importance of adolescent perceptions of parental support of violent and nonviolent responses in influencing early adolescents' effective nonviolent and aggressive behavior.