A developmental study of violence-related problematic behaviors (2)

The purpose of this study was to compare children's and parents' normative consciousness with respect to the multiple problematic behaviors in the three age groups of children. The first age group consisted of elementary school children from fourth- to sixth-graders (N=285) and their parents (N=254). The second age group consisted of junior high school students from first- to third-graders (N=270) and their parents (N=245). The third age group consisted of high school students from first- to third-graders (N=274) and their parents (N=233). Normative consciousness was measured with 49 items in eleven subscales of problematic behaviors. Each item was rated on a 4-point scale indicating how severely children were punished, from not at all (1) to very much (4). Children rated the extent to which they would receive punishment from their parents if they would do each problematic behavior. Parents rated the extent to which they would give punishment to their child if their child would do each problematic behavior. The main results were as follows. Children's ratings generally declined with age, especially the third age group's ratings declined drastically. Parents' ratings on the five subscales of bullying, defiant attitude, fashion, disturbance of activities in a class, and drinking and smoking declined with age of children. However, parents' ratings on the other six subscales of violence, shoplifting and use without permission, undisciplined school life, undisciplined home life, delinquency, and schoolgirl's compensated dating did not change as a function of children's age. These findings were discussed in relation to the prevalence and the seriousness of problematic behaviors