Longitudinal relations among parenting daily hassles, child rearing, and prosocial and aggressive behaviors in Turkish children

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine the longitudinal relations between parenting daily hassles and young children's later prosocial and aggressive behaviors, as well as the mediating role of parenting practices in a non-Western society. The final sample was 159 middle class Turkish school age children (45.3% girls, M-age = 84.69 months, 76.9% from public school, 23.1% from private school in Bolu, Ankara, and Istanbul) and their mothers. Overall, we found longitudinal evidence that parenting daily hassles, warmth, and physical punishment were significantly and differentially associated with children's prosocial and aggressive behaviors 3 years later. The present findings extend our understanding of the interplay of parenting and stress in predicting children's prosocial and aggressive development in a non-Western culture.