Jan 24 2009
Controls Could Bring Clarity to Parenting
Why do some children bully others, whether their bullying be physical or verbal? Good question. It deserves study.
The title to this ScienceDaily post from last August, The School Bully: Does It Run In The Family? made me think I was going to learn that the tendency to bully was partly genetic and that is how it could “run in the family.”
But this is what I found -
Sweeney reviewed research out of England, Germany, Norway, Japan, South Africa and the United States, which she reports lagged behind the European countries in examining the phenomenon of bullying prior to this decade. The majority of the research that she examined involved children between the ages of nine and 16.
Sweeney says her review of the literature found that children raised by authoritarian parents – parents who are demanding, directive and unresponsive – are the most prone to act out bullying behavior.
On the other hand, there were parallels showing that children raised by nurturing, warm, responsive parents were less likely to bully.
The above seems to suggest that bullying is taught or fostered by families. Parents, really.
The author explained -
“Children who experience hostility, abuse, physical discipline and other aggressive behaviors by their parents are more likely to model that behavior in their peer relationships,” she writes. “Children learn from their parents how to behave and interact with others,” Sweeney says.
I wonder, however, if one could also conclude that children who experience hostility from their parents are more likely to have inherited from their parents genes that make hostile behavior more likely. Of course, both genes and learning are probably involved. But a study that doesn’t control for one (by looking at whether adopted children show the same pattern, perhaps) can’t confidently conclude that the other is largely responsible.
What causes bullying? Until other variables are adequately controlled for, we can’t clearly conclude that parenting style deserves all the blame.
