The Influence of Parenting Styles on Aggressive Behavior in Young Children
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/3a8weq45Keywords:
Parenting styles; Aggressive behavior; Young children; Empathy; Mediating mechanism; Literature review.Abstract
Aggressive behavior in early childhood serves as a key predictor of future health and social adjustment, and has become a central topic in developmental psychology research. This behavior is influenced by a multitude of factors, including physiological, psychological, and environmental determinants, wherein the family, as the primary context for a child's socialization, plays a critical role through its parenting styles. Existing research has predominantly categorized parenting styles into authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful types. Studies have consistently indicated that authoritative parenting is associated with lower levels of aggression in young children, whereas negative parenting styles —such as authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful approaches—are linked to higher levels of aggressive behavior. However, within the Chinese cultural context, traditional values such as filial piety and familism, along with unique parent-child interaction patterns (e.g., the traditional "strict father, kind mother" dynamic), may exert a moderating effect on the aforementioned relationships—a dimension that warrants further in-depth analysis. This study aims to systematically review the relationship between parenting styles and aggressive behavior in young children through literature analysis and to construct a theoretical model delineating the underlying mechanism with empathy as the central mediating variable. This study specifically focuses on:(1) how parenting styles influence the manifestation of aggressive behavior in young children; (2) differences in the types and frequency of aggressive behaviors across different parenting styles; and (3) the mediating mechanism of empathy between parenting styles and aggression, based on existing empirical evidence.
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