CHILD-REARING PRACTICES AND TEMPERAMENT OF CHILDREN : ARE THEY REALLY DETERMINANTS OF CHILDREN ' S AGGRESSION ?

Very few studies on children's aggression conducted in the Eastern culture, even though studies on children's aggression in the Western culture are numerous. This study attempted to examine the roles of various childrearing practices and temperament of children in contribut­ ing to children's aggression in Javanese culture. Fifty-eight preschool children and their mothers participated in this study. Data were col­ lected by means of school and home observation, and interview with the mothers. Level of maternal education, nurturant of the mothers, and several types of temperament of the children significantly predicted children's aggression.

According to these records, murder rates in the United States are ten to twenty times higher than in other industrialized nations, and are even higher when compared with developing countries.For example, in the United States in 1988 there were roughly 5,665 crimes (murder, sex offenses, seri ous assault, theft, breaking and entering, and fraud) per 100,000 inhibitants com pared to only 152 per 100,000 in Indone sia.
In accounting for these differences it has been suggested that culture deter mines not only the rate of violence (Goldstein & Segall, 1983), but also how much aggression is tolerated within a soci ety and how it may be expressed {Parke & Salby, 1983).In Indonesia, quiet self-con trol is htghly regarded (Kuntjaraningrat, 1985).As a result, Indonesians refrain from aggressing in response to provocations that would otherwise evoke powerful retaliation from persons in similar circumstances in other cultures.
Beliefs about aggression and differ ences in childrearing practices may partially explain cultural variations in aggressive behavior.Various cultures hold contrasting views concerning the appropriateness of aggression and reasons for its occurrence (Fraczek, 1985;Osterweil & Nagano Nakamura, 1992).For example, a study by Osterweil and Nagano-Nakamura indicated that Japanese mothers viewed aggression as a natural part of their children's behav ior but believed that it should be expressed within the family where it can be regulated and therefore do little serious harm.In con trast, Israeli mothers believed that aggres sion mainly a response to external provo cations.and they beheved that aggression should be expressed outside the family 6 rather than within it.Such contrasting be liefs about aggression influence childrearing practices in various cultures and in turn, help to explain why cuhural differences exist in the rate and intensity of many of forms of aggression which tend to persist over time (Fraczek & Kirwil, 1992).tend to use physical punishment.and tend to use love-onented discipline (Becker, 1964;Fesbach, 1970;& Martin, 1975).In Sweden Olweus (1980) found that mother's negativism toward the child and mother's permissiveness for aggression were two variables that contributed to children's ag    Sex Differences.To examine whether there were any sex differences in children's aggression, the Yuen method was applied.
Yuen method compares trimmed-means (20% trimming) of two variables being ex amined.It takes care of outliers and heavy tailed distribution that can decrease the Supra Wirnbarti power (Wilcox, 1996).As shown in  .23,p < .05,respectively.Table 3 shows these results.

Sex Differences
This current study found no sex differ ences in children's aggression.This result is inconsistent with the major findings of sex differences in aggression (Hyde, 1984;Maccoby et al., 1974Maccoby et al., , 1980;;Tieger, 1980).
These prior studies also found that boys and men are not only more physically ag gressive than girls and women, but also more verbally aggressive.However, the result of the current study is similar to other cross-cultural studies by Whiting & Edwards (1973) which found no sex differ ences in retaliatory aggression among to boys and girls.Kuntjaraningrat (1985) posited that the Javanese families continue to value certain sex stereotypic behaviors which are appropriate for boys and girls.
For example: boys are allowed to play around the neighborhood with their friends, go around the city on bikes, or play soccer games.Girls, however, are encouraged to stay at home, read books, or chat with friends at home or at friend's house.
Even though the Javanese still have these stere6types, !here are higher social values that guide the 1ife of the people.
These values are "rukun" (maintain harmo nious and positive relationships), "gotong royong " (interdependency}.and "tepa sehra" (emphatrzinq with others and being aware of one's own limitations).Being "rukun".according to Javanese culture, does not mean that people should not have conflict with others.Rather, as Geertz (1961) stated among the Javanese, overt conflict with others is avoided.Being "rukun" is maintaining "the harmonious so cial appearance", so people still may have conflict with others but they do not show 1t overtly.
Javanese avoid overt-conflict with oth ers by being or acting "jothakan": a condi tion where a person does not want to meet and/or talk to the other person he/she is having a conflict with.With "jothakan".one can avoid verbal and physical confronta tion.Parents and other adults prefer this means to avoid aggression among young children, and aggression among adults.
Another major Javanese value is "go tong-royong": helping other people in need.
Javanese parents also teach their children that their neighbors are also their family.gressive children (Becker. 1964;Feshbach, 1970;Martin, 1975;Olweus, 1980).This • home and at school.The Javanese soci ety is the "paguyuban" society.This means that people who one often encounters in the work-place.at the mosque.at school.and other social instiluhons will be consid ered as "family".Inside this "paquyuben" society.each person rs very much de manded to be "rukun", "'gotong royong".and 'tepa seflra".because in that way social order and peacefulness can be maintained.Childrearing practices vary across cultures (Segall, 1983) and are influenced by cul Longitudinal or cross-sectional studies will be beneficial for improving our understan ding about children's aggression.
Studies of the childrearing correlates of aggressJVe behavior showed consistent findings.Aggressive children tend to come from homes in which the parents are re jecting, disinterested in their child's devel opment, are lacking in warmth and affec tion, are indifferent or permissive loward their children's expression of aggression.
) indicated that rejection by parents was related to children's aggression in school.The Jess satisfied the parents were about their child's accomphshments.man ners, and behaviors, the more aggressive that was child in school.Surprisingly the results had no relationships to the nurturan ce of the parents.One would expect that parents who were more nurturant would have children who were less aggressive.In Poland and Finland, Eron (1982) re ported a similar result, but the relation seemed stronger for boys than for girls.Both interparent and intraparent incon sistency in discipline practices have impli cations for children's aggression.Parke and Deur (1972) posited that interparent incon sistency involves disagreement and incon sistency between the parents in disciplin ary practices, whereas intraparent incon sistency involves the failure of one parent ,>SIKOLOG!KA Nomor2 TahuoUJanuan 1997 Child-Rearing Practices and Temp8rarnent of Children: Ale They Really Determinants of Chi!dreri•s Aggressioo? to discipline a child consistently for an in fraction each time it occurs.These two reserachers found that children who re ceived inconsistent reward and punishment for their aggressive behavior were more resistant to the use of consistent punitive control.However, this study only looked at intraagent consistency and mechanically delivered noxious noise, thus raising the question of the ecological validity of the study.Another study which looked at the interagenl consistency of punishment (Sawin & Parke, 1979) showed that aggres sion occured highest in the inconsistent discipline condition, followed by consistent approval and consistent ignore, and low est in the consistent disapproval condition.Other research indicates that children's aggressive behavior may be linked to spe cific temperamental qualities.Recent evi dence suggest that difficult infants (i.e.those who are irritable, unpredictable, and hard to soothe), may be more likely to de velop aggressive behavior patterns at later ages.For example, Thomas.Chess, & Birch (1968) from their New York Longitu dinal Study (NYLS) found that children who developed behavior problems (included ag gressiveness), had a �ditticulr tempera mental pattern at earlier ages.Aggressive children were more active, more irregular, had lower thresholds.were low on adapt ability, and were rated high on intensity, persistence, and distractibility.A longitudi nal study spanning for five years was con ducted with six month-old babies (Bates, 1987).The mothers were asked on a tem perament questionnaire that allowed re• searcher to identify "difficult" babies.It was found that the same mothers were periodi caUy evaluated their children's aggressive behavior, and that temperament ratings were quite good predictors of which chil dren would display greater amounts of ag gression.PSIKOLOGIKA Nomot 2 Tahun ti Jenuan 1997 Research on the relationship between aggression and temperament in children is still very rare.The existing research in this area is found only in Western culture, and little or none ever done in Indonesia.The fact that childrearing practices vary from society to society, and the development of temperament in children is influenced by the context where the children live.There fore, studies on childrearing practices and temperament, and their relation to aggres sion in children are needed.The aims of this study were to deter• mine what demographic factors influence aggression in children, and to understand the relative contribution of childrearing prac tices and temperament in children's aggres• sion.METHODS Subjects Fifty-eight preschool children (33 boys & 25 girls) and their parents participated in this study.They were recruited from Syuhada mosque of Yogyakarta.The chil• dren ranged in age from 48 to 71 months (M = 63; SD = 6.28).Their preschool ex perience ranged from 2 to 27 months ( M = 12.98; SD= 5.59).Twenty six children were first born, 17 were second born, 11 were third born, two were fourth born, and two were filth born.Four children had no sib lings, 28 had one sibling, 18 had two sib• lings, six had three siblings, and two sub• jects had siblings more than three.Father's education ranged from 12 to 22 years (M = The childreanng variables were exam ined using several methods.To assess maternal permissiveness towards aggres• sion and maternal physical punishment, a subset of items from Patterns of Childrea• ring Interview(Sears.Maccoby, & Levin.1957)  were used.Only questions concern• mg aggression were included, these were permissiveness of aggression among sib lings, toward parents, and toward other children; and parental punitiveness of child's aggression.Answers for each item were scored on a 5 point scale.Point 5 was given 11 mother was very permissive towards aggression/was very punitive if her child aggresses.A research assistant was trained to inferview the mothers using the guidelines from Sears, Maccoby, & Levin 8 (1957).Another assistant was trained to score the interview, and 30% of the inter• view was graded to establish reliability.lnterrater reliability between the researcher and assistant researcher was .87.Differ• ences in the rating between the researcher and assistant researcher was resolved with discussion.Maternal nurturance and restrictive• ness were measured using Block Child Rearing Practices Report (Rickel & Biasatti, 1982).This measure was translated into Bahasa Indonesia, and then back trans• lated into English.The scale consists of 40 items in the forms of questionnaire that uti• tized a 7-point Ukert scale.High scores in the nurturance or restrictiveness items in• dicates high maternal nurturance or restric tiveness.Cronbach's alpha for nurturance was .86 and for restrictiveness was .79.The consistency of discipline between mother and father was measured via home observation procedures.This procedure was derived from Sawin and Parke' study (1979) in the laboratory that has been modi• lied for use in the home setting.Mother's and father's/other adult's response of children's aggression at home toward sib ling, peer.mother, father, and other per• sons in the families was observed and coded.Because typical Indonesian fami lies do not only consist of father-mother• and children, but also of a housekeeper.uncle, or aunt.Indonesian children may have more than two disciplinary figures.At least two authority figures had to be present during the observation.Before observation was conducted, the mother was asked about the other disciplinary figure beside herseH.This person then was confirmed to be the second disciplinary agent.The following responses were recorded from boll" mother's and other disciplinary agent's behavior: reward, punishment.and unde tect=d.Inconsistency was scored if mother ,.>SiKOLVGIKA Nomor 2 Tahun ll Januan 1997 Child-Reariog Practices and Terpperament ct Children: Are They Really Determments ol Children's Aggression? responded wi1h reward and the other agent responded with punishment for a child ag gressive behavior, or vise versa.If both agents have the same responses to an aggressive behavior, a consistency of dis cipline was scored.In the case when ob server noticed a child's aggression but could not decide parental response (e.g., parents were in other room).undetected was scored.Observations were scheduled for three different times: two stressful mornings and one relaxing week-end.Each observation lasted for one hour, so each family was observed for three hours.Cohen kappa's interobserver reliability has been counted for each response at the beginning, mid-way, and at the end of home visit data collection.yielded the reliability coeficient .90,.93,.97respectively.To measure children's temperament, parents were asked to complete the Par ent Temperament Questionnaire for Chil dren.This measure was constructed byThomas and Chess (1977) to assess the temperament of children between the age of three and seven years.
there were no sex differ ences in children's aggression could stem from specific socialization experiences that boys and girls receive early in their life.In the Western culture, Frodi, Macauley, &Thome (1977) posited that as a result of socialization.females usually are more susceptible than males to guilt and anxiety over the expression of aggression.which under many situations but not all circum stances, will inhibit their aggression.The Javanese of Indonesia do not embrace the notions of "stand for yourself' or "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".Instead the.Javanese value emotional control and the ability to calm one's own feelings of hostil ity and aggression and the feelings of oth ers in order to avoid face-to-face confron tation.This behavior is valued not only for boys and men but also for girls and women.As a result.the Javanese culture does not tolerate aggression either for boys or girls.Parents have clear cultural stereotypes concerning the qualities associated with children ol different sexes.which in turn.coulu lead tc differences in their treatment t SIKOL::lGIK� Nomor 2 Tanun U Jan•.iari 1997 Child-Rearing practces and Temperament ot Children: Are They Realy Determnant.5 of Children's Aggression' Consequently.children have also to respect their neight>ors as they respect their own parents.and they have lo help neighbors who are in need."Gotonq-rcyonq" is paral lel with the Islamic principle of -aekat" (to PSIKOLOGIKA Nomor2Tahun ti Januan 1997 give in).In this study, all the child:en came from Moslem families who hold not only Javanese values, but also Islamic prin ciples.These principles include (in hierar chical order): pledging that Allah is the Only God and Muhammad is His prophet, pray ing 5 times a day, fasting during the Rama dhan month, "zakat" or give in two-and onehalf percent of annual income for the needy, and perform the pilgrimage lo Mecca.Still.another Javanese value is "tepa selira".Javanese children are constantly reminded to consider other people's feel ing, and to imagine how they would feel if somebody else does certain thing to them.For example: mothers with soft voices con stantly remind children not to be noisy be cause grandmother is sleeping.Via this reminder mothers not only instruct the chrl dren to be quiet, but moreover they teach children to feel how is it if somebody is noisy while they are sleeping.The three values mentioned above.are not compatible with aggressive behavior.However, whether these values may serve as inhibitors of aggression needs further study.Childrearing Practices and Temperament In this study, out of five childrearing variables, only maternal nurturance pre dicted children's aggression.ln the present study.inconsistency in parental discipline did not predict children's aggression.In this study, generally interparent consistency (between mother and father) discipline was more salient.That is, both mother and fa ther were more consistent in their discipline than inconsistent.However, intraparent conslstency of discipline in the mothers themselves as the primary disciphnary agent was not tapped in the home obser vation.which could have been a source of children's aggression.Supra Wimbarts Mothers who often use physical pun• ishment or who are too permissive toward their children's aggression have more ag• argument was not supported in the present study.It is also true for restrictiveness of the mothers.However, mothers who were "more nurturant had less aggressive chtl dren.In light of the social learning perspec live, the physical punishment that the chil• dren receive from their parents can be imi tated by the children and adopted in the future when they encounter aggressive situations.Mothers in this study used only low to moderate physical punishment both in the severity and the forms of punishment.It maybe that mothers in this sample had moderately high education and they did not use a lot of physical punishment.which may account for the lack of aggression present in their children's behavior.Whether Jav anese physical punishment.if present.was predictive of children's aggression is open for further investigation.The reason why there was very low aggression observed in the children's be• havior may also be because the restrictive• ness in the Javanese environment both at et a",1977).These irritation might provoke PSIKOLOGIKA Nomor 2 Tahun ti Januari 1997 Child•Reanng Practices and 'temperament ol Children: Are They Really Determinants ol Children's Aggression? aggression of their peers, and in return these children model the peers to behave aggressively.CONCLUSIONS The current study found some supports to the understanding of socializing agents of children's aggression.ln Javanese cul ture, nurturant of mothers and tempera ment (persistence and threshold) of chil dren are the salient agents of aggression in preschool children.There were no sex differences found m this study.The Javanes values and parental beliefs in childrearing may be able to buffer children from display rng aggressive behavior.This explains why \ow occurrence of children's observed ag gression was found among the Javanese children.The qualitative analyses showed that children who jomed the lqro' m higher chap ter or reading the Qur'an were less aggres sive than those who were not.Reading the Qur'an is an intellectual activity in which the children not only required to be able to distinguish each Arabic alphabets that are different from the international ones, but also be able to spell and sound them in a particular manner.This activity also re quires the child to behave properly during the reading.Children in this study joined this activity at school, consequently they were always in constant supervision of the teachers that would not tolerate aggressive behaviors.While the results revealed m this study were substantial.they must be viewed with caution for several reasons.The finding of children's observed aggression suggested that Javanese children had low observed aggression.Data collection of the children's aggression was conducted at a preschool affiliated with a mosque.The low occur rence of aggression was likely due to the PSIKOLOGIKA Nomor2Tahun IIJanuari 1997 restrictiveness of the environment and the duration of observation (only 20 minutes).
tural values and parental beliefs.The mea sure of childrearing practices in the current study have been adapted to the way how typical Javanese mothers rear their chil dren.For example: the typical punishment of American mothers has been altered to typicat Javanese physical punishment.but yet the measure failed to predict children's aggression ..Even though the Patterns of Child Rearing Interview Guides (Sears et al, 1957), and the Block Child Rearing Atti tudes Report (Rickel & Biasatti, 1982) have been widely used, it could not predict the Javanese childrearing practices in conjuc tlon with children's aggression.This might be due to the fact that Javanese rearing practices are based on Javanese values and parental beliefs which were not tapped by the measure used in the current study.The home observation in the current study onty measured interparent consis tency of discipline.and did not measure the mtraparent consistency of discipline.There is a possibility that observed aggres sion in the current sample was related to intraparent consistency of discipline rather than interparent consistency of discipline.Future research in the area of children's aggression should consider the different settings of data collection.Sample of chil dren behaviors can be obtained not only from school setting, but also from the home setting with longer duration of observation.Lastly, future reserach should attempt to replicate and expand on the present study in larger sample and broader age range.

Table 3
di .... • P< .05PSIKOLOGIKA Nomo, 2 Tahun II Januari 1997 Ch11d-Aearmg Practices and Temperament of Children: Are They Realy Determinants of Children•s Aggress!Ofl?old and a college graduate.Her mother was 35 years old, and a high-school graduate.PSIKOLOGIKA Nomor2 Tahun II Januan 1997 As the youngest in the family this child was given a lot of attention from mother and ceted mothers (Becker.1964).Exposure o venous media may enable mothers to earn about child development especially 12 about childrearing in non-aggressive ways.