Influence of child-rearing on aggressive behavior in a transcultural perspective

The aim of this paper is to summarize the literature and exemplify the author's research findings concerning the influence of different systems of child-rearing across cultures on aggressive behavior by using an individual-environment interaction approach. The question is whether a restrictive environment (e.g., China), foster children with lower levels of and less variation in aggression than children in a more permissive environment (e.g., Sweden). The main results involve 290 primary school children, mean age 10.3, their mothers and teachers in Beijing. The children showed distinct individual differences in aggression, though at a lower level and with less variation than Scandinavian children. Aggression was meaningfully related to other selfreport dimensions, such as positive attitude to school and negative relations with parents, findings similar to those in the Western literature. In line with the literature, sex differences in terms of aggression was also found among the Chinese children, namely, that girls seem better able to control aggression than boys. Chinese mothers in comparison to Swedish mothers, seemed to be more in control of their children. Children preferred their mothers, shame was the most frequent disciplinary method used, followed by reasoning. Both parents made decisions concerning the child. Finally, theoretical and practical implications are concluded in the paper.