The Relationships among Maternal Psychological Control, Perceived Parental Differential Treatment, Effortful Control, and Relational Aggressive Behavior against Siblings: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

• Main Authors: Ong, Anna Wen-Huey, 翁文慧
• Other Authors: Liu, Yih-Lan
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/75x56m

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 教育研究所 === 103 === The purpose of this study was to explore the relation among maternal psychological control, perceived parental differential treatment, effortful control, and relational aggressive behavior against siblings. There were 425 elementary students in the 4th ~6th grades from northern and central Taiwan who participated in the study. The measured variables were measured by the children’s self-report questionnaire. Pearson correlation analysis, one-way ANOVA, one-way MANOVA, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were adopted to analyze the data. The results were as follows: 1. There were significant differences in the justification of perceived parental differential treatment and relational aggressive behavior across eight sibling groups with the composition of sex and birth-order. However, there were no significant differences in the dimension and degree of perceived parental differential treatment across the eight sibling groups. 2. Justification of perceived parental differential treatment significantly mediated the relationship between maternal psychological control and relational aggressive behavior. 3. The level of effortful control moderated the proposed mediated relationship. Among children with low effortful control, justification of perceived parental differential treatment mediated the relationship between maternal psychological control and relational aggressive behavior against siblings. However, among children with high effortful control, justification of perceived parental differential treatment was unable to mediate the relationship between maternal psychological control and relational aggressive behavior against siblings. This study suggests that children’s ability to justify parental differential treatment may have a greater impact on their relational aggressive behavior relative to the degree and dimension of perceived parental differential treatment. Furthermore, the proposed mediated relationship varies across children with different levels of effortful control. The findings of this study may serve as a reference for parents and researchers.