OVERT AND RELATIONAL AGGRESSION IN RUSSIAN NURSERY-SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN - PARENTING STYLE AND MARITAL LINKAGES

Maternal and paternal parenting styles and marital interactions linked to childhood aggressive behavior as described in Western psychologica l literature were measured in an ethnic Russian sample of 207 families of nursery-school-age children. Results corroborated and extended fin dings from Western samples. Maternal and paternal coercion, lack of re sponsiveness, and psychological control (for mothers only) were signif icantly correlated with children's overt aggression with peers. Less r esponsiveness (for mothers and fathers) and maternal coercion positive ly correlated with relational aggression. Some of these associations d iffered for boys versus girls. Marital conflict was also linked to mor e overt and relational aggression for boys. When entered into the same statistical model, more marital conflict (for boys only), more matern al coercion, and less paternal responsiveness were found to be the mos t important contributors to overt and relational aggression in younger Russian children.