Parental Warmth and Rejection in the Etiology of Violence
Parental Warmth and Rejection in the Etiology of Violence
This chapter provides a review of research on parental warmth and parental rejection and their associations with physical aggression and violence. There is consistent evidence that parental warmth is inversely associated with violent behavior, but the effects are not very strong. By contrast, there is robust evidence that indicators of parental rejection, seen as the far end of a warmth-rejection continuum, are correlated with physically aggressive and violent behavior. The studies as a whole suggest that violent offenders have experienced less warmth and greater rejection from parents than nonviolent-only offenders. The evidence suggests that low parental warmth is associated with nonviolent offending as consistently as it is with violent offending. The association between parental rejection and offending is clearly more consistent for violent than nonviolent antisocial behavior. The finding is important in light of commentary made about the average expectable environment in Chapter 2.
Keywords: Parental Warmth, Violence, Violent Crime, Aggression, Parental Rejection, Neglect, Parenting, Sex Differences, Average Expectable Environment
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