Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 15, 2025

Author Spotlight: Understanding Adolescent Social Adversity Effects on Neurodevelopment in Mice
Published on: March 15, 2024
Adolescent normative beliefs about aggression mediates the association between fathers' psychological control in
So Young Choe1, Jungeun Olivia Lee2, Stephen J Read3
1Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide, Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center.
Abstract:
We examined whether adolescent normative beliefs about aggression (NBA) functioned as a mechanism through which parental psychological control (PPC) predicted physical aggression in emerging adulthood via secondary data analyses with the Child Development Project (Dodge, Bates, & Pettit, 1990) longitudinal data. Fathers' psychological control (fPC) that adolescents reported at age 13 predicted NBA at age 16, which then predicted their aggression at age 18, after controlling for harsh parenting, earlier NBA, aggression, and SES at age 13 and adolescent gender. However, mothers' psychological control (mPC) that adolescents perceived at age 13 did not predict NBA at age 16. Our results suggest that fPC at age 13 uniquely predicts NBA at age 16, and that adolescents are able to distinguish fPC from mPC. Moreover, no differences in the mediational paths were found based on the gender of the adolescents, emphasizing the detrimental impacts of PPC regardless of the gender of the adolescents. Our findings suggest that adolescents may receive the message from their psychologically controlling fathers that it is okay to hurt others for one's own gain, and then the resulting belief that aggression is appropriate predicts their physical aggression in their emerging adulthood.
Related Concept Videos
Influence of Parents and Peers on Identity
Parental Influence on Identity Development
Parents serve as primary guides and managers in an adolescent's life, offering support instrumental in decision-making and personal growth....
Aggression
Conduct Disorder
Socioemotional Experience and Gender Development
Cognitive Development During Adolescence
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification

