Parental influences on aggressive behavior: a social learning approach

This research tested the social learning propositions that parents influence a child toward aggressive behavior by modeling and encouraging such behavior. It further tested the social learning propositions that the more a child identifies strongly with a parent who models aggression and communicates with a parent who encourages aggression, the greater will be the influence. Support was found for the general propositions on modeling and encouragement of aggression, and in the case of the father, support was found for the propositions on identification and communication. However, the results for identification and communication with a mother who modeled and encouraged aggression were opposite from the predicted direction. Implications of the predicted findings are discussed as well as possible explanations for the unexpected findings.