Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Aggress Behav. 2024 Jan;50(1):e22108. doi: 10.1002/ab.22108. Epub 2023 Aug 16.
Love withdrawal is a form of interpersonal manipulation that shares many features with relational aggression; its use by children has not been examined. Guided by social learning theory, we sought to investigate the prevalence of toddlers' use of love withdrawal toward caregivers (parents and teachers) and further investigate how this behavior was associated with relational and physical aggression and parents' use of love withdrawal. These aims were examined using parent and teacher reports in a sample of 198 toddlers (M = 33.62 months; SD = 5.00 months; 50.5% girls). We found that most toddlers used love withdrawal directed at parents (79.2%) and teachers (72.1%) when angry and displayed this type of behavior more than relational and physical aggression. Accounting for household income, hours per week in childcare, and child age in months, as well as classroom clustering, we found that relational aggression, and not physical aggression, predicted the use of love withdrawal by toddlers (teacher reports), and that the associations were stronger for love withdrawal and relational aggression than for physical aggression. We also found that parents' use of love withdrawal toward their child was correlated with their reports of their child's use of love withdrawal, but not with their child's use of aggression. These results highlight the importance of considering the use of love withdrawal by children given its association with aggression which is linked to poorer psychosocial functioning.
爱的撤离是一种人际操纵形式，与关系攻击有许多共同特征；尚未研究儿童对此的使用。受社会学习理论的指导，我们试图调查幼儿对照顾者（父母和教师）使用爱的撤离的普遍性，并进一步调查这种行为与关系和身体攻击以及父母使用爱的撤离之间的关系。在一个由 198 名幼儿组成的样本中，使用父母和教师的报告来检验这些目标（M = 33.62 个月；SD = 5.00 个月；50.5%女孩）。我们发现，当幼儿生气时，大多数幼儿会对父母（79.2%）和教师（72.1%）使用爱的撤离，并且这种行为比关系和身体攻击更频繁。在考虑家庭收入、每周育儿时间、儿童月龄以及班级聚类后，我们发现关系攻击，而不是身体攻击，预测了幼儿（教师报告）使用爱的撤离，并且爱的撤离与关系攻击的关联比身体攻击更强。我们还发现，父母对孩子使用爱的撤离与其对孩子使用爱的撤离的报告相关，但与孩子使用攻击的报告无关。这些结果强调了考虑儿童使用爱的撤离的重要性，因为它与攻击有关，而攻击与较差的社会心理功能有关。
