The Influence of Parenting Styles on Aggressive Behaviour in

Typically Developing Children and Children with Special Needs

Chonghui Li

School of Child Development and Education (family development institute), China Women's University,

Beijing, 100101, China

Keywords: Parenting Styles, Aggressive Behaviour, Typically Developing Children, Children with Special Needs.

Abstract: Parents can directly or indirectly impact children's early development. Specifically, parenting styles can

influence their behaviour, whether they are typically developing children or children with special needs. This

paper explores the influence of parenting styles on aggressive behaviour, using typically developing children

and children with special needs as research subjects. Therefore, by collecting and analysing relevant

researches it was found that parenting styles had a significant relationship with aggressive behaviour in

typically developing children. However, parenting styles do not necessarily have a significant relationship

with aggressive behaviour in children with special needs. Different parenting styles have different impacts on

children. Positive parenting styles are associated with reduced aggressive behaviour, while negative parenting

styles are associated with increased aggressive behaviour. Besides, research also found that there were other

mediators and moderators influencing the relationship between parenting styles and children's aggressive

behaviour. Furthermore, the review identifies limitations in the existing literature, such as research samples

tending to be limited and narrow, a lack of research on aggressive behaviour in children with special needs,

and a lack of studies comparing typically developing children and children with special needs. These findings

of the paper provide theoretical implications for parents in educating their children.

1 INTRODUCTION

Aggressive behaviour (AB) is a common behavioural

problem in young children, and it has a significant

impact on children's physical and mental

development, social adaptability, and peer

relationships. As the main influencers of children's

early development, parents' parenting styles (PSs)

directly or indirectly shape their behaviour and

emotional responses. Moreover, AB is more

complicated in children with special needs (CSN),

who have social environment and familial PSs in

addition to individual differences. Therefore,

examining the effects of PSs on the AB in both

typically developing (TD) children and CSN has great

theoretical and practical significance for

understanding the development of children's

behaviour and guiding the practice of family

education.

Diverse parenting styles are influenced by

variations in cultural backgrounds, the degree of

economic development, and the policy environments.

These macro factors affect PSs and children's

behavioural development within families. From the

macro to the micro level, there are significant

differences in parental expectations, parenting goals,

and various methods within individual families, and

these differences differ in different countries and

socioeconomic backgrounds. These differences are

reflected in children's behavioural outcomes,

especially in the expression of AB, as well as in PSs.

Therefore, it is true that parenting styles may play a

major role in determining children's aggressive

behaviour.

2 OVERVIEW

2.1 Parenting Styles and Their

Classification

PSs refer to the attitudes and behaviours of parents in

educating and raising their children in daily life. It

briefly describes various parenting patterns and

behaviours of parents. It represents a relatively stable

style of education that does not change according to

the situation (Xing, 2009). PSs are also called family

200

Li, C.

The Inﬂuence of Parenting Styles on Aggressive Behaviour in Typically Developing Children and Children with Special Needs.

DOI: 10.5220/0014111000004942

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management (APMM 2025), pages 200-205

ISBN: 978-989-758-791-7

upbringing styles, educational methods, rearing styles

and so on.

Many researchers have classified PSs based on

different perspectives and dimensions. Baumrind, a

famous American psychologist, classified PSs into

four categories based on two dimensions of parental

responsiveness and demandingness: authoritative,

authoritarian, permissive, and rejecting-neglecting

(Baumrind, 1991). Authoritative PSs are demanding

and responsive, establishing authority over their

children while guiding their behaviour. Parents show

democracy, tolerance and support for their children,

as well as appropriate demands and restrictions,

typically raise children who are emotionally active

and happy, with high levels of self-esteem and self-

control. Authoritarian parents are demanding,

ordering children to obey their instructions, setting

clear rules, and suppressing children's self-expression

and sense of independence. This approach tends to

raise children who are prone to anxiety, withdrawal,

depression, isolation, and AB when frustrated.

Indulgent parents are characterised by permissiveness

and over-indulgence, giving children no norms,

requirements or constraints. Consequently, such

parenting may result in children who are often

immature, impulsive, resistant and rebellious, or

overly dependent on adults and lacking in

perseverance. Rejecting parents demonstrate neither

demanding nor responsive, neither supervising nor

supportive, but may reject or neglect children. Such

parenting may result in children who are deficient in

cognitive, emotional and social interaction skills and

are aggressive (Baumrind, 1991). In China, scholars

Guan and Liu classify PSs as authoritarian,

democratic and tolerant from the perspective of the

parent-child relationship (Fei, 2020). The democratic

parents approach treats children as equals, values and

respects their ideas, and tends to promote

independence in children.

2.2 Aggressive Behaviour

AB are actions that are directly or indirectly injurious

to others and are problematic behaviours. It is divided

into physical, verbal and instrumental attacks in terms

of manifestation. It is divided into proactive attack

and reactive attack in the cause of attack, and

instrumental attack and hostile attack in the motive of

attack. Chinese scholars Lin, Yang, and Huang have

proposed that the meaning of AB: aggression

manifests itself in psycho-emotional or personality

traits, such as anger, excitement, and hostility, which

ultimately manifests itself in AB (Chen, 2019).

3 THE INFLUENCE OF

PARENTING STYLES ON

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR IN

THE TYPICALLY

DEVELOPING CHILDREN

In order to investigate the relationship between PSs

and AB in TD children, different researchers have

used different research methods and data analysis

methods. Studies have consistently found that PSs

have a significant relationship with the AB of TD

children. In particular, negative PSs are associated

with an increase in children's AB, while positive PSs

can reduce children's AB. Furthermore, different

dimensions within maternal and paternal PSs have

unique effects on children's AB. Chen conducted a

study on 460 students in grades 5 and 6 in two

primary schools. Parenting Styles Questionnaire

(completed by the parents) and Children's

Aggression Scale (completed by children) were used

to evaluate parenting styles and children's aggression.

Data were analysed using SPSS 20.0. The findings of

the study indicated a significant correlation between

PSs and children's AB. Children were less likely to

exhibit AB when their parents demonstrated

emotional warmth and understanding. Conversely,

children were more likely to exhibit AB when their

parents used punishment and rejection. During further

analysis, it was found that the rejection factor of the

father's PS had a positive impact on the children's AB,

while the emotional warmth factor had a negative

impact on the children's AB. The overprotection

factor of fathers did not significantly affect the

children's AB. However, the overprotective factor in

mothers' PS positively predicted children's AB,

whereas the emotional warmth factor was not

significant in predicting children's AB (Chen, 2019).

Duan et al. selected 460 children in grades 4, 5 and 6

in two primary schools as participants. The measures

included the Buss-Perry Aggression Scale and the

Parenting Style Evaluation Scale. Data were analysed

using SPSS16.0 and AMOS17.0 software. According

to the study, there is a close relationship between PSs

and children's AB. Children's AB can be positively

predicted by a combination of paternal factors,

including Punishment and Harshness, Rejection and

Denial, and Overprotection. In addition, maternal

factors, including Rejection and Denial, Punishment

and Harshness, and Excessive Control, also positively

predicted children’s AB (Duan et al., 2015). These

studies, by selecting the same number of participants

The Inﬂuence of Parenting Styles on Aggressive Behaviour in Typically Developing Children and Children with Special Needs

201

and using different software analyses, consistently

concluded that PSs have a significant correlation with

children's AB and that negative factors in PSs

positively predicted children's AB, which means that

negative PSs are associated with increased aggression

in children. Furthermore, the study by Duan et al. also

found the effect of gender differences on children's

AB, with boys tending to use direct physical

aggression and girls tending to use indirect aggression

(Duan et al., 2015). Besides, Chen found a mediating

role of peer relationships. The study indicated that

peer relationships mediated the effects of paternal

emotional warmth and maternal rejection on

children's AB. Paternal PSs are emotional warmth

and understanding that will strengthen the

connections between children and their peers, leading

in turn a significant decrease in AB, and good peer

relationships will have a positive impact on AB. On

the contrary, when the mother treats her children

mostly with rejection, it will lead to a significant

increase in children's AB, which in turn will lead to a

negative peer relationship (Chen, 2019). This

suggests that PSs influence a person's social

characteristics in addition to having a direct impact

on AB.

Different types of PSs can have different effects

on children's AB. Children with democratic PS have

weaker AB. Spoiling, authoritarian, and permissive

(neglectful) PSs increase children's AB. Fei and Xing

found that the relationship between spoiling,

permissive (neglectful) and authoritarian PSs and

children's AB was positive, and the relationship

between democratic PS and children's AB was

negative. Their research analysed the reasons for

different PSs leading to children's AB. Parents

employing a doting PS tend to satisfy all of a child’

s needs unconditionally, often overindulging them.

This can result in AB when the child’s demands are

not met. Permissive parents treat their children with

indifference and disregard, and often fail to provide

sufficient behavioural restraint. This is often

accompanied by low parental responsiveness and

demands, which may lead to emotional instability,

low self-esteem, and passive-aggressive tendencies in

children. Authoritarian parents have high demands on

their children's behaviour and control their children,

which leads to rebelliousness and AB, as children

may learn coercive tactics from their parents and use

force when resolving conflicts with peers.

Democratic parents involve understanding and

respecting children, treating them equally, and

listening to their perspectives. These PSs give

children independent thoughts and positive emotions

and are less likely to result in AB (Xing, 2009, Fei,

2020). Xing also found differential effects of varying

PSs on proactive and reactive aggression. Indulgent

parenting was significantly related to children's

proactive aggression, while both authoritarian and

neglectful PSs. These three unfavourable PSs have

different levels of influence on children's proactive

aggression, with indulgent parenting demonstrating

the least impact, followed by neglecting parenting,

and authoritarian parenting exhibiting the greatest

impact (Xing, 2009).

Furthermore, there are various mediating and

moderating factors that influence the relationship

between PSs and AB, such as the mediating role of

family climate found by Li et al. Different PSs reflect

different family climates, which in turn influence

children's AB. Positive PSs, which include parental

understanding, warmth and support, establish family

values, where children feel relaxed and comfortable

in this family atmosphere, and their AB is reduced.

On the contrary, negative PSs, such as parental denial

and strict authoritarianism, create a serious and

unfavourable family atmosphere, which leads to an

increase in children's AB (Li et al., 2024). del Puerto-

Golzarri et al. also examined the effect of the

interaction of temperament type and PS on children's

AB. The temperament type for this study considered

only three temperament categories including negative

affect, effortful control, and impulsivity. A more

authoritarian PS combined with a child’ s highly

impulsive temperament is associated with increased

AB. Furthermore, children’ s AB also influences

PSs. For example, increased child AB may lead to

more authoritarian PS in an attempt to restrain the

child ’ s behaviour. This can, in turn, lead to

increased child rebelliousness and subsequent AB,

creating a cyclical pattern. Therefore, there is a

bidirectional effect of PSs and children's AB (del

Puerto-Golzarri et al., 2022).

4 THE INFLUENCE OF

PARENTING STYLES ON

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR OF

CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL

NEEDS

To analyse the relationship between PSs and AB in

CSN, the literature search focused specifically on

studies concerning children with Attention-

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Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), intellectual

disability, hearing impairment, Autism Spectrum

Disorder (ASD), and Oppositional Defiant Disorder

(ODD).

For children with intellectual disabilities, PS has

a significant relationship with AB of children with

intellectual disabilities. For example, Zong tested 227

intellectually disabled students and their parents from

12 special education schools in grades 1-9, under the

age of 18. Data were collected using the Problematic

Behaviour Scale (specially designed for children with

intellectual disabilities) and the Parenting Styles

Scale, where the problematic behaviours in the

Problematic Behaviour Scale include AB. The

findings showed that there was a negative significant

correlation between PSs and the occurrence of AB in

children with intellectual disabilities. Negative PSs

such as doting, authoritarianism, inconsistency, and

permissiveness can significantly and positively

influence the AB of children with intellectual

disabilities, and there is a two-by-two positive

correlation with AB. However, positive and

democratic PSs do not significantly and positively

influence the AB of children with intellectual

disabilities (Zong, 2021).

For children with ODD, Zhang et al. selected 44

children with ODD as the study group and 50 TD

children as the control group. Data were measured

using the Achenbach Child Behaviour Rating Scale

(CBCL) and Parenting Style Measurement Unit

(EMBU). The results indicated that parenting

emotional warmth and understanding were negatively

correlated with AB, but parenting punishment, harsh

treatment and a lack of denial positively correlated

with AB. Therefore, negative PSs have a negative

impact on children's behaviour, while positive PSs

can reduce the symptoms of ODD and also reduce AB

in children with ODD (Zhang et al, 2020).

For children with ASD, Lin et al. conducted a

comparative analysis of 70 children with ASD and 98

TD children, and showed that AB in children with

ASD was positively correlated with hostile/coercive

PSs. Examining the impact of highly controlling

parenting practices on children with ASD is crucial.

Caring for a child with ASD can be challenging for

parents due to the child’ s social communication

difficulties, restricted interests, or repetitive

behaviours. These challenges, coupled with

emotional and behavioural difficulties, may lead

parents to feel anxious and adopt controlling

behaviours, which in turn can manifest as a

hostile/coercive PS. This negative PS, in turn, can

increase both ASD symptoms and AB. In addition,

the study found that the maternal Autism Spectrum

Quotient (AQ) attentional switching domain

moderated the relationship between hostile/coercive

parenting and AB in children with ASD. Specifically,

a significant association was observed between

mothers ’ hostile/coercive parenting and AB in

children with ASD when maternal attentional

switching abilities were at medium to high levels.

Children with ASD were more aggressive when their

parents used more hostile and coercive methods. The

correlation between maternal hostile/coercive PS and

AB was not significant when maternal attention

switching problems were at low levels. Reducing

hostile/coercive PSs and improving maternal

attention switching problems in mothers of children

with ASD may reduce AB in children with ASD (Lin

et al, 2023).

Most particularly in the case of hearing impaired

children, there was no significant correlation between

PSs and AB. For example, Wang et al. selected 80

hearing impaired children aged 3-5 years old as their

research participants and showed AB among these

children was not associated with their parents’ PSs.

The reason for this may be that the social withdrawal

behaviour of hearing impaired children tends to

receive more attention than AB. Parents will pay

more attention to those withdrawn children, offering

them greater encouragement and support while

exercising less control, encouraging the children to

solve the problems independently when they

encounter difficulties, explore on their own without

relying on their parents, cultivate the children's

curiosity, give the children the opportunity and space

to show their talents, and allow them freedom in their

actions and thinking without undue restriction (Wang

et al, 2009).

Studies of various groups of CSN, including those

with ADHD, intellectual disabilities, ASD, and ODD,

demonstrate a significant association between PSs

and AB. Negative PSs exacerbate the symptoms and

AB of these children. However, in the study of the

hearing impaired children group, the effect of PSs on

AB was not significant.

In addition, there is also a bidirectional influence

between PSs and the AB of CSN, where PSs have a

relevant influence on the AB of CSN, and in turn, the

AB of CSN affects PSs. Studies, such as that by Zong,

have concluded that poor parenting behaviours can

trigger a wide range of problematic behaviours in

children with intellectual disabilities, including AB,

in turn, children's problematic behaviours can

exacerbate the perpetuation of poor PSs, creating a

vicious circle (Zong, 2021). Liu et al. similarly found

that negative PSs and AB of ADHD affected each

other. Children's AB often lead to negative emotions

The Inﬂuence of Parenting Styles on Aggressive Behaviour in Typically Developing Children and Children with Special Needs

203

in parents, and when children exhibit AB, parents will

remind, scold, admonish, and punish in an attempt to

stop and change their children's behaviours.

However, children may struggle to regulate their

behaviour when this negative PS continues, and

punishments may often fail, but instead, they will

reinforce the occurrence of AB (Lu et al, 2006).

5 DISCUSSION AND

SUGGESTION

5.1 Overall Conclusion

This paper summarises previous studies about the

influence of PSs on AB in TD children and CSN,

which found that PSs had a significant relationship

with AB in TD children. Positive PSs, such as the

factors of warmth, understanding, and support, are

associated with reduced AB, while negative PSs,

including denial, controlling behaviour, punishment,

and over-indulgence, are associated with increased

AB. However, PSs do not necessarily have a

significant relationship with AB in CSN. The

relationship between PSs and AB varies among CSN.

This may be due to the diverse symptoms presented

by different conditions, leading parents to adopt

varying PSs. For instance, no significant relationship

has been observed between AB and PSs in children

with hearing impairments, while such relationships

have been found in children with ADHD, intellectual

disabilities, ASD, and ODD.

Overall, studies on both TD children and CSN

have shown that positive PSs reduce the incidence of

AB, while negative PSs increase AB. Furthermore,

parents of children exhibiting AB tend to employ

negative PSs, creating mutual influence.

Summarising the relevant studies, it was also

found that there are other mediators and moderators

influencing the relationship between PSs and

children's AB, such as gender differences, peer

relationships, temperament type, family atmosphere,

and mothers' attention-switching problems.

Therefore, other influences should also be considered

in relation to the impact of PSs and AB.

5.2 Suggestions

PSs have an important impact on children's AB, so in

order to reduce children's AB, parents should pay

attention to choosing positive PSs when educating

their children, providing children warmth,

understanding, support and tolerance. This promotes

healthy development and reduces undesirable

behaviours, particularly AB (Chen, 2019). Instead of

spoiling or neglecting their children, parents should

provide ample love and care, respect their children’

s perspectives, and guide them in establishing sound

values and developing independence. This, in turn,

can promote positive peer interactions and family

dynamics, enhance peer interaction skills and feelings

of security, and potentially reduce aggressive

tendencies (Fei, 2020). Furthermore, the influence of

PSs and children's AB is mutual, so parents should be

positive role models who demonstrate appropriate

behaviours that children can emulate. This approach

can reduce undesirable behaviours and cultivate

positive ones. Finally, group counselling can be used

to intervene in parents' negative PSs, so that PSs can

be adjusted and improved in a timely manner, thus

reducing the frequency of children's AB to a certain

extent (Zong, 2021).

5.3 Limitation and Prospects

Current research on the influence of PSs on the AB of

TD children and CSN still has a huge space for

exploration. Firstly, the current research samples tend

to be limited and narrow. Existing studies of TD

children often focus on those in kindergartens and

primary and secondary schools within certain urban

areas. Similarly, research on CSN primarily involves

those with ADHD, intellectual disabilities, hearing

impairments, ASD, and ODD. In future research, it is

necessary to broaden the scope to include diverse

populations of CSN, such as different grades,

locations (both urban and rural), and settings.

Secondly, in terms of research content, studies on

CSN tend to concentrate on the effects of PSs on their

problematic behaviours, with a relative lack of

specific research exploring the impact on their AB.

AB can be studied specifically in the future. Finally,

other mediators of PSs and children's AB, such as

parental education, parental personality, teachers'

teaching styles, and mass media can also be studied

in depth. In addition, limited research has

comparatively analysed TD children and CSN. Due

to the unique characteristics of CSN, distinct effects

of PSs on their AB compared to TD children.

Therefore, future comparative studies should

examine these potential differences.

6 CONCLUSION

This paper examined the influence of PSs on AB in

TD children and CSN. It was found that varying PSs

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had distinct effects on this behaviour. For TD

children, positive PSs tend to reduce child AB,

whereas negative PSs tend to increase it. For CSN,

there was a significant relationship between AB and

PSs for the majority of subgroups, but there was no

significant relationship between PSs for AB of

children with hearing impairment. Moreover,

mediating and moderating factors such as gender

differences, peer relationships, temperament type,

and family atmosphere also affect the relationship

between PSs and children's AB. Therefore, parents of

TD children and CSN should pay attention to using

positive PSs, regulating their own behaviours, and

giving warmth, understanding and support to their

children, so that they can form good behavioural

norms, reduce the occurrence of AB, and allow

children to grow up healthily.

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