Parental attitudes and susceptibility to impulsive aggression. The mediation role of alexithymia

• Authors: Zdankiewicz-Ścigała, Elżbieta , Sikora, Joanna , Ścigała, Dawid Konrad

Abstracts

EN

Aim:The study aimed at analyzing the relationship between parental attitudes and impulsive aggression, including the mediation role of alexithymia. Method: The following tools were used in the study:Parental Bonding Instru¬ment; Toronto Alexithymia Scale; Buss- Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ). The study sample was randomly selected from the general population, 197 people aged 22 to 43 (M = 34.42; SD = 5.47) in total. The study sample included slightly more women (53.8%) than men. Considering the level of education, the largest number of people had higher educa-tion (74.1%); the others had secondary education (14.2%) or a bachelor’s degree (11.7%). Results:The analyses – correlation, regression, and mediation – showed a moderate relationship between maternal control and difficulties in identifying emotions as well as between fatherly control and overall alexithymia scores and also separately with one of its components – externally-oriented thinking. Maternal control is associated with the development of hostility. On the other hand, fatherly control increases the tendency to physical aggression, hostility, and anger. Alexithymia is strongly related to physical aggression, hostility, and anger and it is an important mediator between maternal and fatherly control and various aspects of aggression, increasing its intensity. Age correlates positively with the intensity of alexithymia. Conclusions:The study shows strong relationships between parental attitudes, mainly control, and the tendency to develop alexithymia and to various manifestations of aggression. Alexithymia blocks the processes of identification and verbalization of emotions. As a result, the language is no longer used to regulate and control excitement and thus, it increases the risk of aggressive behavior. The results show that future research on the relationship between parental attitudes, alexithymia and aggression shall also include other dimensions of the emotional regulation.

Keywords

EN

parental attitudes; alexithy¬mia; aggression

• Publisher: Akademia Pedagogiki Specjalnej im. Marii Grzegorzewskiej. Wydawnictwo APS
• Journal: Psychologia Wychowawcza
• Year: 2019
• Volume: Supplement
• Pages: 106-125

Dates

published

2020-01-23

Contributors

author

Zdankiewicz-Ścigała, Elżbieta

author

Sikora, Joanna

author

Ścigała, Dawid Konrad