The Effects of Family Structure and Parenting Style
on Overt Aggressive Behavior at School
Bryce Summers & Linda Bakken
Department of Counseling, Educational & School Psychology, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas 67260
1. Introduction
Research indicates that elementary school children committing violent misbehavior are 11 times as likely
not to live with their father and 6 times as likely to have parents who were not married [1]. Pfiffner, McBurnett, and
Rathouz, [2] found a steady slope increase of violent behavior for youths starting with youths from two-parent
families, increasing further for children who had some contact with their fathers, and finally increasing further for
children with no contact with their father. Research such as this suggests that minimally that more parental
supervision is associated with lower rate of adolescent deviance.
Another interest is how the parent approaches discipline and monitoring their youth in a household.
Conducting extensive qualitative studies Baumrind [3] has identified four classification schemes for parenting style
including authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful. Research indicates that authoritative parenting has
the highest associations with positive outcomes for children including decrease in disruptive behavior, increase
academic success, and fostering social responsibility in children [4, 5]. Regarding the other parenting styles,
research indicates that other parenting styles have a less overall positive effect compared to authoritative parenting,
and this is especially true for neglectful parenting which has the highest negative impact [6, 7].
This author wanted to consider how the combination of these variables impact distinct ecological niches.
Avenevoli, Sessa, and Steinberg [8] suggested from their findings that the combination of parenting style and family
structure have different effects on children, and that certain family structures or parenting styles do not have an
impact on children all the same. For example, Avenevolli [8] found that children from Asian, intact middle-class
families who had authoritarian parenting styles had a positive relationship with GPA. The purpose of this study is to
consider the combination of family structure (single-mother home versus two parent home) and parenting style
(authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, neglectful) in relation to aggression at school.
2. Experiment, Results, Discussion, and Significance
This study surveyed approximately four hundred high school seniors in three local area high schools. Two
instruments were used in the study. One survey question students regarding ethnicity, family structure type, SES,
and the incidents of aggressive behavior as evident by being sent to the principal’s office, or having in-school
suspension, out-of-school suspension, and expulsion. The second survey, derived by a renowned psychologist who
took Baumrind’s previous qualitative work parenting styles, and converted it into quantifiable terms, measured
parenting style. This survey measured parenting style by considering the level of monitoring by the parent(s) and
the level of communication.
Results indicated that there is a significant difference between total number of disciplinary actions of
adolescents and parenting style. There was also a significant difference between total number of disciplinary actions
of adolescents and family structure. Adolescents from two parent households had less disciplinary actions than
adolescents from other types of households. In addition, there was an significant difference between total number of
disciplinary actions of adolescents and parenting style. That is, adolescents from authoritative parenting households
had less disciplinary actions than adolescents other types of households.
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References
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[2] Pfiffner, L. J., McBurnett, K., & Rathouz, P. J. (2001). Father-absence and familial antisocial characteristics. Journal of Abnormal Child
Psychology, 29, 357-367.
[3] Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology Monograph, 4(1) Part 2, 1 – 103.
[4] Glasgow, K. L., Dornbusch, S. M., Troyer, L., Steinberg, L., & Ritter, P. T. (1997). Parenting styles, adolescents’ attributions, and
educational outcomes in nine heterogeneous high schools. Child Development, 68(3), 507 – 529.
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Adolescence, 27(3), 345 – 372.
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competence among adolescents from authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful families. Child Development, 65, 754 – 770.
[8] Avenevoli, S., Sessa, F. M., & Steinberg, L. (1999). Family structure, parenting practices, and adolescent adjustment: An ecological
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