SORAYA LESTER

NIKKI PRESTON

MZWANDILE MADALANE

CATHERINE L. WARD

DO CONTEXTUAL STRESSORS AFFECT PARENTING BEHAVIOURS AND

CHILD AGGRESSION IN SOUTH AFRICAN TOWNSHIPS?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• Lauren Baerecke

• All fieldworkers

• National Research Foundation

• Non-Government Organisations:

1. Etafeni

2. Beautiful Gate

3. The Parent Centre (Gugulethu, Khayelitsha & Phillipi)

4. Badisa

5. Life Choices

DO CONTEXTUAL

STRESSORS AFFECT

PARENTING

BEHAVIOURS AND CHILD

AGGRESSION IN SOUTH

AFRICAN TOWNSHIPS?

VIOLENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA

South African Violence Prevalence Rates Statistics

- Murder rate (2011-2012) = 30.9 per 100 000 population

- 31.5% of the 31.177 non-natural deaths recorded in 2008 from

violence

International Violence Prevalence Rates Statistics

- United States murder rate: 15.2 per 100 000 in 2009

- England and Wales: 9.7 homicide offences per million population

over 2011 and 2012

Peaks between the ages of 15-29

VIOLENCE/ HOMICIDE BY AGE (N= 11299)

(NIMSS, 2010)

WHY?POOR PARENTING BEHAVIOURS MAY

LEAD TO CHILD AGGRESSION

AGGRESSION PROBLEMS IN

EARLY CHILDHOOD

Oppositional, Disruptive,

Conduct

VIOLENT CONDUCT IN ADOLESCENC

E AND ADULTHOOD

Criminality,Antisocial,

Delinquency,

Early antecedents

?

Poor Parenting

behaviours

WHY PARENTING?

• Social Learning Theory

- Observation

- Reinforcement versus punishment

• Attachment Theory

- Positive internal working models

- Behavioural regulation and control

1. Inconsistent parenting

2. Poor supervision and monitoring

3. Neglectful parenting

4. Harsh discipline (e.g., corporal punishment)

5. Little involvement and interaction

6. Lack of positive parenting

WHAT PARENTING BEHAVIOURS?

1) Economic hardship

- Indirect cause of poor parenting

- Diffi cult to meet chi ldren's needs + enhances distress

- Associated with poor parenting

2) Single parenting

- More responsibi l i ty = less energy

- With economic hardship = distress

- Results in reduced l ikel ihood of eff ective parenting

3) Violent neighbourhoods

- Poor parenting

- As a result of stress and powerlessness

CONTEXTUAL STRESSORS

Contextual factors impact on parental effi cacy

Parental effi cacy: extent to which parents believe they can

overcome the negative contexts and stressors in which

they live.

Low parental effi cacy=less resilient + more hopeless

Therefore, parental effi cacy is a risk factor for poor

parenting

PARENTAL EFFICACY

Townships Contextual Stressors

Western Cape townships predominantly isiXhosa-speaking

Lack of literature on this language group

SAMPLE

HYPOTHESES

POOR PARENTING

BEHAVIOURS

CHILD AGGRESSION

PARENTAL EFFICACY(mediator)

CONTEXTUAL STRESSORS(moderator)

DESIGN

- Quantitative

- Cross-sectional

SETTING

- NGO’s in the Western Cape

PARTICIPANTS

- isiXhosa speaking parents with

children between 6-18

METHODS

Life Choice

s

METHODS

MEASURES

Child Aggression Child Behaviour Checklist

Parenting Behaviours Alabama Parenting Questionnaire Mother-Child Neglect Scale

Parental Efficacy Parenting Sense of Competence – Efficacy Scale

Contextual Stressors Single Parenting “Are you parenting alone?”Economic Hardship Household Inventory; Hunger ScaleViolent neighbourhoods Perceived Neighbourhood Scale

FACTOR ANALYSIS

Reliability analysis of subscales of APQ Low - only three subscales with Cronbach’s alpha values of between 0.6 and 0.7 (i.e., Positive parenting, Parental involvement and Poor parental monitoring and supervision subscales)

Exploratory Factor Analysis Minimum of five up to 14 new factors identified with scree test

and Kaiser criterion, respectively

New five-factor solution adopted Only two new factors have significant loadings and are

theoretically sound (share underlying meaning) to be grouped together

Reliability analysis shows two factors as having sufficient internal consistency (i.e., have Cronbach’s alpha values greater than 0.7) (i.e., positive and involved parenting practices and inconsistent discipline and supervision)

1. Inconsistent parenting

2. Supervision and monitoring

3. Harsh discipline

4. Interaction and involvement

5. Positive parenting

FACTOR ANALYSIS OF APQ

OLD APQ NEW APQ

1. Inconsistent discipline and supervision

2. Positive parenting

+ Harsh corporal punishment+ Mild corporal punishment

RESULTS

• Biological parents (86.5%)

• Male (56.7%) & Female

(43.3%)

• Ages 6-9 (60%)

  Rule Breaking Behaviours

N (%)

Aggressive Behaviours

N (%)

Oppositional Defiant

Problems N (%)

Conduct Problems

N (%)

Borderline clinical range

(B)

27 (8.65) 41 (13.14) 19 (6.09) 52 (16.67)

Clinical range (C)

49 (15.71) 33 (10.58) 13 (4.17) 51 (16.35)

• Single parents (33.7%)

• Unemployed (64.4%)

BIVARIATE RESULTS

MEDIATION ANALYSES

Positive parenting

Parental efficacy

Child aggression

Inconsistent discipline and supervision

Mild corporal punishment

MODERATION ANALYSES

Parental efficacy

Positive parenting

Child aggression

Perceived neighbourhood

violence

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

Converging Findings Diverging Findings

• Inconsistent discipline and

supervision

• Mild corporal punishment

• Positive Parenting

• Parental efficacy

• Harsh corporal punishment

• Contextual stressors

• (Parental efficacy)

Parenting is central to understanding the causes of child aggression focusing in SA

Positive parenting Inconsistent discipline and punishment Mild corporal punishment

Minimal mediating role of parental effi cacy

Design and content of parenting programs

Policy work - corporal punishment

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

LIMITATIONS

• Cross-sectional study

• Self-report

• Measure of stress

• Generalizability and external validity

FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS

• How contextual stressors impact on other mediating factors of parenting

• Effects of moderators need to be measured directly

• Conceptual definitions of types of parenting in South Africa

• Improved scales

• More research to replicate the findings of this study

CONCLUSIONS

• Early conduct problems later violence

• Parenting is a predictor of child aggression :

1. Lack of positive parenting

2. Inconsistent discipline and supervision

3. Mild corporal punishment

• Positive parenting mediated by parental efficacy

• Implications for interventions (e.g. parenting programs) and future research

• Possibility to stem national levels of violence with this knowledge

• Neighbourhood violence is a predictor of child aggression