Browsing by Author "Hart, Kendrea Childers"

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    Social Information Processing as a Mediator of the Relation between Harsh Parenting and Childhood Aggression
    (2006-05-08) Hart, Kendrea Childers; Lynne Baker-Ward, Committee Member; Ann Schulte, Committee Member; Mary Haskett, Committee Chair
    The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesized mediating role of social information processing on the relation between harsh parenting and childhood aggression. Specifically, this study sought to gain a better understanding of the association between parenting and children's interpretations and mental representation of cues (intent attribution), their ability to generate solutions (response generation), and their solution selection process (response decision) and how these processes, in turn, relate to children's propensity to behave aggressively. The sample consisted of 166 children and their parents. Approximately half of the children had a substantiated history of physical abuse. It was hypothesized that (a) higher levels of parental harshness would predict higher levels of aggression in children, (b) hostile intent attributions, fewer types of solutions generated, and a higher number of aggressive decisions would predict higher levels of child aggression, and (c) the relationship between parental harshness and aggressive behavior would be mediated by intent attributions, response generation, and response decision. Mediation was assessed using a series of regression analyses. Results revealed that harsh parenting did not significantly predict child aggression, response generation or response decision. Harsh parenting, did however, predict children's intent attributions. Harsh parenting also predicted response decision when recoded as a dichotomous variable in a post-hoc analysis. Results further revealed that none of the social information processing operations investigated (intent attributions, response generation, and response decision) significantly predicted child aggression. Due to the lack of prediction among variables, mediation could not be assessed. Considerations for interpreting results, as well as directions for future research are discussed.