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A new study by Statistics Canada has confirmed what many people have suspected; parents who yell at their kids, and hit and threaten them, will very like have aggressive children with similar behaviors. The research also showed that parents changing that behavior permanently at any time will be an enormous help to the child. Finally, as people suspected again, gentle, hands-on parents will produce the same sort of children, and such parental behavior will even override risk factors for aggression like family dysfunction, a mother’s depression, and poverty.

More than 4,100 children from across Canada and their parents were surveyed during this study, which was part of Canada’s National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. The first surveys were conducted when the children were between two and five years old, in 1994-95, and eight years later, when the children were between ten and thirteen, in 2002-03.

The children who had been hit less, yelled at less and threatened less when they were preschoolers, got into fewer fights, rarely bullied anyone, and were generally less aggressive. Those children who were hit, yelled at and threatened as preschoolers, were much more likely to be aggressive later. Other factors were quite variable; some families were rich, others were poor, some children were boys, some were girls, and it didn’t matter where in Canada they lived, the parents’ punitive or non-punitive behavior made the difference in aggression.

The study found that if parents changed their behavior, in either direction, during the intervening eight years between surveys, there was a clear and visible change in their children’s behavior, in the same direction.

The National Survey of Children and Youth is a long-term study which is being conducted by Social Development Canada and Statistics Canada. The research has been designed to gather data, including factors that influence the behavioral, emotional and social development of children over time.

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