Child physical aggression: The contributions of fathers’ job support, mothers’ coparenting, fathers’ authoritative parenting and child’s theory of mind

This study analyzed how and to what degree fathers’ job support and mothers’ co-parenting affect the manifestation of physical aggression in children. It also investigated the possible mediating roles of fathers’ authoritative parenting and child’s theory of mind (ToM). The participants were 324 Hong Kong Chinese children (168 girls; M = 70.39 months) and their parents. While the mothers were asked to rate their child’s physical aggression, the fathers were asked to complete questionnaires about how authoritative their parenting behaviors were, their spouse’s co-parenting behaviors, as well as the support they felt they were receiving from work. Research assistants also conducted individual interviews with all children to assess their ToM. Our results showed that although the direct influence of fathers’ job support and mothers’ co-parenting did not have a significant effect on child aggression, the chain mediation effects of “fathers’ job support (Model 1)/Mothers’ co-parenting (Model 2) → fathers’ authoritative parenting → child ToM → child’s physical aggression” were significant. These findings suggest that child’s aggression is sequentially shaped by contextual, process, and individual factors. Copyright © 2019 Springer Nature B.V.