Leiden University Student Repository

Jong, Dennis de (2024)

The nature of acting out: The role of the parental bond in the link between parent-child conflict and externalising problem behaviour

Bachelor thesis | Psychologie (BSc)

Research indicates that the quality of the home environment has a large influence on the variance of externalising problem behaviour in children and adolescents. Based on past research, it seems that many environmental factors that affect externalising problem behaviour are mediated through the parent-child bond. In addition, research shows that improving the parent-child bond reduces externalising problem behaviour. This research endeavoured to determine whether the correlation between parent-child conflict and externalising problem behaviour holds true in our healthy sample. Secondly, whether the parent-child bond can serve as a vector of intervention in adolescents with high levels of externalising problem behaviour. Data of 80 participants of the RE-PAIR project was used in a linear regression analysis with parent-child conflict as the independent variable and externalising problem behaviour as the dependent variable, a significant correlation with a medium effect size was found...Show moreResearch indicates that the quality of the home environment has a large influence on the variance of externalising problem behaviour in children and adolescents. Based on past research, it seems that many environmental factors that affect externalising problem behaviour are mediated through the parent-child bond. In addition, research shows that improving the parent-child bond reduces externalising problem behaviour. This research endeavoured to determine whether the correlation between parent-child conflict and externalising problem behaviour holds true in our healthy sample. Secondly, whether the parent-child bond can serve as a vector of intervention in adolescents with high levels of externalising problem behaviour. Data of 80 participants of the RE-PAIR project was used in a linear regression analysis with parent-child conflict as the independent variable and externalising problem behaviour as the dependent variable, a significant correlation with a medium effect size was found. A multiple regression analysis with parent-child conflict and parent-child bond as independent variables and externalising problem behaviour as the dependent variable resulted in a non-significant interaction effect of parent-child bond on the relation between parent-child conflict and externalising problem behaviour. The non-significant result might be a result of the narrow range of scores on parent-child conflict and parent-child bond in the healthy sample. Future research could exclusively include adolescents already showing high externalising problem behaviour to identify the effect of the parent-child bond in the target group for interventions.Show less

Author

Jong, Dennis de

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Supervisors

Nimphy, C.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en