Noncompliance and child-rearing attitudes as predictors of aggressive behaviour: A longitudinal study in Chinese children

The purpose of the study was to examine contributions of early personal and socialisation factors to the prediction of aggressive behaviour in Chinese children. A sample of children, initially at 2 years of age, and their parents in the People's Republic of China participated in this two-year longitudinal study. Observational data were collected on children's noncompliance in mother-child interactions at Time 1 and aggressive behaviour in peer interactions at Time 2. In addition, information concerning child-rearing attitudes were obtained from parental reports. The results indicated that boys had higher scores than girls on physical and verbal aggression at 4 years of age. Early noncompliance significantly and positively predicted aggressive behaviour. Parental child-rearing attitudes had unique, but generally weak, contributions to the prediction of aggression. Finally, the relations between child-rearing variables and child aggression might be different for boys and girls.