Effects of parental monitoring on aggressive behavior among youth in the United States and South Korea: A cross-national study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.05.008Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Parental monitoring had a direct effect on aggressive behavior only for US youth.

  • Females in both countries were less likely than males to commit aggressive behavior.

  • Living area and father's education controlled significantly only for US youth

  • The mediating roles of substance use and self-esteem were reported in both countries.

  • Youth aggression was affected differently across different socio-cultural contexts.

Abstract

Objective

This cross-national study examined the direct and indirect effects of parental monitoring on aggressive behavior among separate samples of 10th grade youth in the US (N = 3784) and South Korea (N = 3079).

Methods

Data from two national probability studies—Monitoring the Future (MTF) for US youth and Korea Youth Panel Study (KYPS) for South Korean youth—were used. Both studies incorporated school-based, multi-stage, stratified, and randomized clustered sampling methods.

Results

Path analyses results indicated that while parental monitoring was directly and negatively related to aggressive behavior among US youth, it had no direct effect among South Korean youth. We also found significant indirect effects of parental monitoring on youth aggression through cigarette use, alcohol use, and self-esteem among both groups. Both US and South Korean youth who perceived increased monitoring from their parents reported less cigarette and alcohol use and higher self-esteem, which in turn reduced the likelihood of aggressive behavior.

Conclusions

This study serves as an example of conducting cross-national research using existing data to investigate significant issues related to youth well-being. Although there are cultural differences between US and South Korean youth, parental monitoring is still important in deterring both groups of youth from engaging in aggressive behavior.

Introduction

Aggressive behavior has been broadly recognized as a serious social problem during adolescence. Although the absolute rates of youth crime in the US and South Korea have declined over the past decades, many adolescents engaged in aggressive behavior, such as physical fighting, verbal threats of harm to others, and using weapons (Choi and Lee, 2009, Dahlberg, 1998, Puzzanchera, 2009, Rappaport and Thomas, 2004). Approximately one in three high school age youth reported that they engaged in aggressive behavior (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). Aggressive behavior is linked to severe problems in both adolescence and adulthood. For example, youth's aggressive behavior is associated with substance abuse, social maladjustment, and crime (Espelage, Low, Polanin, & Brown, 2013). Thus, it is important to investigate factors associated with youth's aggressive behavior.

Research has shown that family factors are related to youth's aggressive behavior. In particular, parental monitoring is one of the main family predictors to examine youth's aggressive behavior. Parental monitoring incorporates communication between parents and their children as well as supervision of their children by parents (Li, Stanton, & Feigelman, 2000). Previous studies have suggested that parental monitoring is a significant factor in deterring youth from engaging in aggressive behavior (Van der Graaff, Branje, Wied, & Meeus, 2012). Parental monitoring helps communicate parental interest and increase feelings of safety and security among youth, which may in turn lead to reduced risk of aggressive behavior (Kliewer et al., 2006).

Studies inspired by social control theory (SCT; Hirschi, 1969) have addressed family bonding influences on the onset and development of youth's aggressive behavior. In fact, there is a plethora of theoretical and empirical studies on youth aggression and its crucial predictors from the SCT perspective (e.g., Agnew, 1985, Chapin and Coleman, 2006, Hirschi, 2004, Huebner and Betts, 2002). Findings indicate that parental monitoring is a protective predictor that reduces the likelihood of youth engaging in aggressive behavior (Marshall and Chassin, 2000, Pratt and Cullen, 2000, Stattin and Kerr, 2000, Sullivan et al., 2004). Findings also show that substance use (e.g., cigarette and alcohol use) is a risk factor, increasing the likelihood of engaging in aggressive behavior (Carpenter, 2005, Ellickson and McGuigan, 2000). Finally, high levels of self-esteem have been found to be protective in that self-esteem is negatively associated with aggression (Donnellan et al., 2005, Pratt and Cullen, 2000). SCT has also informed studies on aggression among South Korean youth (Kim & Kim, 2008). Korean literature shows that parental monitoring (Han and Grogan-Kaylor, 2012, Kim and Kim, 2008, Lee et al., 2012) and positive self-esteem (Hong and Kim, 2011, Park et al., 2014) are likely to reduce aggressive behavior among South Korean youth, while substance use (Kim & Kim, 2010) is related to increased aggressive behavior.

Previous research has mainly focused on examining aggressive behavior among youth in North America, Europe, and Australia. Little work has been done on examining aggressive behavior cross-culturally, especially between youth in the US and South Korea. Thus, it is useful to explore systematic and cross-national inquiries on youth's aggressive behavior that may capture the similarities and differences in the pathways to aggressive behavior between US and South Korean youth. In order to compare youth behavior and its determinants between the US and South Korea, it is important to understand the differences in socio-cultural contexts. Evidence supports the idea that youth from different countries perceive the concept of parental monitoring somewhat differently across cultural boundaries due to their culturally-defined understanding of the parent–youth relationship (Han & Grogan-Kaylor, 2012). For example, South Korean youth have much closer relationships with their parents and spend more time together (Hong et al., 2011, Zhao and Akiba, 2009), relative to youth from US families. Research also shows that South Korea is a more family-oriented society, based on principles of Confucianism, with a conspicuous power inequality between parents and their children (Yang, 2009). This cultural circumstance highlights children's obedience to their parents as a dominant virtue, which influences parental role and family functioning in South Korean. As such, these different socio-cultural contexts are likely to affect youth's aggressive behavior differently across the two countries (Hong and Eamon, 2009, Hong et al., 2014). Using datasets from two national probability studies—the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study for US youth and the Korea Youth Panel Study (KYPS) for South Korean youth, the purpose of this study was to conduct a cross-national investigation of aggressive behavior among youth. Our approach and selected predictors were informed by SCT (Hirschi, 1969). We compared the direct effects of parental monitoring on aggressive behavior among 10th grade youth in the US and South Korea. We also examined the mediating effects of youth cigarette use, alcohol use, and self-esteem on the association between parental monitoring and aggressive behavior.

Social control theory (SCT) is utilized as the theoretical approach for supporting the association between parental monitoring and youth's aggressive behavior. Hirschi's (1969) SCT is one of the dominant theories of crime and delinquency. It is the guiding force behind much research on youth violence and occupies a prominent place in the literature (Empey, 1982, Shoemaker, 1984). This theory informs our investigation of factors related to aggressive behavior among youth. Several types of parenting behaviors are essential in supporting positive youth development (Dishion and Loeber, 1985, Kaplow et al., 2002). According to SCT, youth are less likely to engage in criminal activity when predictors such as parental monitoring, attachment, and involvement are strong (Hirschi, 1969, Hirschi and Gottfredson, 2006).

In particular, parental monitoring has been identified as a critical component in the etiology of youth problem behavior. Parental monitoring pertains to parents' knowledge regarding their child's social activities and relationships with peers (Hirschi, 1969). It also refers to parental enforcement of household rules and expectations on their children's behaviors (Dishion & McMahon, 1998). In essence, parental monitoring helps to ensure that opportunities for youth's aggressive behavior are limited (Kung & Farrell, 2000). Research has shown that youth are more likely to engage in aggressive behavior when they experience little in the way of monitoring from their parents (Gibbs et al., 1998, Hay, 2001, Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber, 1986, Polakowski, 1994). On the other hand, parents who are more aware of their child's behaviors are likely to deter their children from committing violence or crime (Ingram et al., 2007, Patterson and Stouthamer-Loeber, 1984, Sokol-Katz et al., 1997).

Among youth in the US, parental monitoring is a strong protective factor against aggressive behavior (Chilcoat and Anthony, 1996, Crouter et al., 1990, Dishion and McMahon, 1998, Kung and Farrell, 2000, Marshall and Chassin, 2000, Stattin and Kerr, 2000, Sullivan et al., 2004, Weintraub and Gold, 1991). Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber's (1986) meta-analysis found that parental monitoring strongly decreases the risk of being involved in conduct problems and delinquency. Similarly, Korean studies show that youth with more parental monitoring are less likely to be engaged in aggressive behavior (Han et al., 2013, Kim and Kim, 2008, Kim and Lee, 2010, Lee et al., 2012, Shin et al., 2014). In this sense, SCT provides a useful foundation for exploring the influences of parental monitoring on youth's aggressive behavior.

Risk factors such as substance use and low self-esteem increase the likelihood of engaging in aggressive behavior among youth in the US (Hawkins et al., 1998, Paternoster and Brame, 1998, Valois et al., 1995). For instance, use of cigarettes (e.g., Ellickson & McGuigan, 2000) and alcohol, including binge drinking (e.g., Carpenter, 2005, Dawkins, 1997, Valois et al., 1995) are positively related to engaging in aggressive behavior. In fact, even when controlling for other critical factors related to offending (e.g., criminal history), substance use remains a powerful predictor of aggressive behavior (Valois et al., 1995). Similar to US youth, substance use is positively associated with deviant behavior among South Korean youth. Both cigarette and alcohol use are related to increased aggression (Kim and Kim, 2010, Lee et al., 2014). Kim and Lee (2010) found that South Korean youth who smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol are more prone to engage in school violence, relative to youth who do not use these substances.

Substance use also mediates the relationship between critical predictors and aggressive behavior among youth (Bijttebier et al., 2003, Bijur et al., 1988, Zhang et al., 1997). A study by Swartz and Lurigio (2007), which examined the mediating role of substance use using the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2001–2002, found that substance use fully mediated the association between negative functioning and criminal involvement. Battin-Pearson et al. (2000) found that substance use was an essential mediating effect on early high school students' deviant behavior.

Youths' self-esteem is a pivotal characteristic that can affect their aggressive behavior (McCarthy and Hoge, 1984, Pflieger and Vazsonyi, 2006). High self-esteem is related to fewer incidences of aggression (Donnellan et al., 2005, Fergusson and Horwood, 2002, Sprott and Doob, 2000). Positive parenting techniques, such as engagement and monitoring, can lead to the development of youths' self-esteem (Dekovic & Meeus, 1997). Given these relationships, the impact of parenting behaviors on youth's negative behaviors, such as aggression, is likely to be mediated by youths' self-esteem. Pflieger and Vazsonyi (2006) found that the lack of parental support leads to lower self-esteem, which in turn influences an increased risk of engaging in aggressive behavior for US youth. Similarly, studies in South Korea show the mediating effect of youth self-esteem on youth deviant behavior (Hong and Kim, 2011, Lee and Lee, 2011). These findings support further examination of the mediating effects of substance use and self-esteem on youth's aggressive behavior.

Previous research found that parental monitoring reduces aggressive behavior among youth (e.g., Stattin & Kerr, 2000). Additionally, youth substance use and self-esteem are significant mediators on aggressive behavior (Zhang et al., 1997). However, examinations in this area have primarily focused on youth in North America, Europe, and Australia. Little study has been done cross-nationally, particularly between US and South Korean youth. Informed by Hirschi's (1969) SCT, we compared the direct effect of parental monitoring on aggressive behavior among separate samples of 10th grade youth in the US and South Korea. The mediating role of youth cigarette use, alcohol use, and self-esteem on the effect of parental monitoring on aggressive behavior was also examined.

The current study addresses an empirical gap by examining the direct and indirect effects of parental monitoring on aggressive behavior for both US and South Korean youth. We derive the following hypotheses. First, we hypothesize that parental monitoring will be negatively associated with aggressive behavior after controlling for gender, age, living area, and father's and mother's education levels among both US and South Korean youth. Second, consistent with research that shows the mediating effects of substance use (e.g., Zhang et al., 1997) and self-esteem (e.g., McCarthy & Hoge, 1984) on youth aggression, we hypothesize that youth cigarette use, alcohol use, and self-esteem will mediate the association between parental monitoring and aggressive behavior.

Section snippets

Data and sample

The current study utilized archival data from two national probability studies—the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study and the Korea Youth Panel Study (KYPS)—to compare the influence of parental monitoring on aggressive behavior between youth in the US and South Korea. Beginning in 1975, the MTF study tracks changing behaviors and attitudes in tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use among US youth. The data are collected annually from a nationally representative cross-section of US youth in the

Descriptive characteristics and bivariate correlation analyses

Table 1 presents a summary of respondents' descriptive characteristics. As indicated, US adolescent respondents included 1786 males (47.2%) and 1998 females (52.8%). Nearly 41% were 16 years of age or older. Approximately 77% of this group lived in cities of 50,000 or more inhabitants (i.e., MSA) (U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 2010) and the remainder (23%) lived in smaller cities (i.e., non-MSA). South Korean adolescent respondents included 1548 males (50.3%) and 1531 females (49.7%).

Discussion

Prior research on SCT-informed explanations of youth's anti-social behaviors has supported findings that relevant factors including parental monitoring, cigarette use, alcohol use, and self-esteem are associated with youth's aggressive behavior (e.g., DeWall et al., 2011, Gibbs et al., 1998, Hay, 2001). However, the focus has been primarily on the direct effects, rather than examining more complex relationships between these factors as they affect aggressive behavior. Additionally, few studies

Conclusion

This study found that parental monitoring is a crucial predictor in deterring adolescents from committing aggressive behavior despite cultural differences between US and South Korean youth. In addition, we found that the path between parental monitoring and youth's aggressive behavior is fully mediated by substance use and self-esteem in both countries. However, when adding substance use and self-esteem in the models, parental monitoring had a significantly direct effect on youth's aggressive

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