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Health
Parents' Views on Violence Guide Child's Behavior

MONDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Parents who set an example that any
form of violence -- including spanking -- is unacceptable are more
likely to bring up children who don't get into fights or other forms of
violence, researchers report.

But their study also found that this type of childrearing isn't always
the norm in American families.

"Almost 40 percent of parents in the study population said they would
tell their child it is OK to hit if another person pushes or hits him
or her," said lead researcher Dr. Sally-Ann Ohene, formerly of the
University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

"This suggests that for a significant number of these parents, advising
their child to fight back is [considered] the best way" to deal with
violence, she said.

According to Ohene, children often heed that advice and do what they
think is expected -- fight.

On the other hand, parents who do not hit their children and who state
categorically that hitting is wrong are sending a clear message that
children can also understand and accept, the researchers say.

They published their findings in the February issue of the journal
Pediatrics.

The study is based on a 2003 survey of 134 children 10 to 15 years old
and their parents living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.

The parent-child pairs were culled from eight outpatient pediatric
practices in urban and suburban areas covering a wide socio-economic
range.

The researchers found a clear inverse relationship between parental
attitudes toward violence and their children's history of fighting: The
more accepting the parent was toward violence, the more prone the child
was to engage in violent scuffles. Similar results were found for the
use of corporal punishment in the home, such as spanking.

The results are interesting but predictable, said Daniel W. Webster,
associate professor at the Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence,
part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in
Baltimore.

"It is very consistent with other research about the cycle of
violence," he said. "In homes where there is physical violence between
parents, or parent to child, that increases the likelihood that they
will have problems with increased violence."

Webster stressed, however, that "most children who do experience
violence do not go on to violence -- but it certainly increases the
risk."

It's also important to note that what behaviors parents expect from
their child, and what their children believe their parents want, can be
two very different things, said Dr. Iris Wagman Borowsky, an assistant
professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota and the senior
author of the study.

"What a child thinks a parent expects of him is more important than
what a parent actually thinks," she said. "We find this is true for
violence as well as other risk behaviors," including sexual activity
and substance abuse.

"It just makes good sense to talk with your child about how you feel
about these issues," she said.

More information

To learn more about risk factors for youth violence, as well as
protective factors, go to the National Center for Injury Prevention and
Control.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/yvfacts.htm

Abstract of the study mentioned in the article:

PEDIATRICS Vol. 117 No. 2 February 2006, pp. 441-447
(doi:10.1542/peds.2005-0421)
Adolescent Medicine
Parental Expectations, Physical Punishment, and Violence Among
Adolescents Who Score Positive on a Psychosocial Screening Test in
Primary Care
OBJECTIVE. We sought to examine the relationship between perceived and
stated parental expectations regarding adolescents' use of violence,
parental use of physical punishment as discipline, and young
adolescents' violence-related attitudes and involvement.

METHODS. Surveys were completed by 134 youth and their parents
attending 8 pediatric practices. All youth were 10 to 15 years of age
and had scored positive on a psychosocial screening test.

RESULTS. Multivariate analyses revealed that perceived parental
disapproval of the use of violence was associated with a more prosocial
attitude toward interpersonal peer violence and a decreased likelihood
of physical fighting by the youth. Parental report of whether they
would advise their child to use violence in a conflict situation
(stated parental expectations) was not associated with the adolescents'
attitudes toward interpersonal peer violence, intentions to fight,
physical fighting, bullying, or violence victimization. Parental use of
corporal punishment as a disciplining method was inversely associated
with a prosocial attitude toward interpersonal peer violence among the
youth and positively correlated with youths' intentions to fight and
fighting, bullying, and violence victimization.

CONCLUSIONS. Perceived parental disapproval of the use of violence may
be an important protective factor against youth involvement in
violence, and parental use of physical punishment is associated with
both violence perpetration and victimization among youth. Parents
should be encouraged to clearly communicate to their children how to
resolve conflicts without resorting to violence and to model these
skills themselves by avoiding the use of physical punishment.