Perceived Parental Support and Aggression in Teenagers

Decades of research suggest that parental factors are among the most influential factors, although no precise factor has yet been claimed to be able to explain the variant of aggressive behaviour in teenagers (Hoeve et al., 2009). A solid system of theories confirms the role of the family and parental practices in the formation of the child's prosocial/ delinquent behaviour, Dishion, Piehler, (2009) talk about the family environment as the basic social ecology of the child. Parental factors have been associated with problematic behaviours of teenagers, such as oppositional behaviour and aggression (Griffin et al., 2004), moreover, there are distinct parental practices (punitive) that determine disruptive behaviours (Stormshak, et al., 2000). The study aims to highlight the relationships between the perception of parental support and aggression of teenagers using the P-PAS Autonomous Parental Support Perception Scale (Mageau et al., 2015), the Aggression Scale developed by Buss and Perry (1992) and the Hostility Questionnaire (Perju-Liiceanu, 1992). The results obtained from the 81 teenagers in the study indicate that parental practices involving control and punitive behaviours are associated with a high level of aggression, oppositional and hostile behaviour. Differences between the level of aggression and general hostility were discovered according to gender


Keywords: teenagers, aggressivity, hostility, parental practices, perceived parental support