Factors relating to the aggressive behavior of primary caregiver toward a child

Abstract

This study aimed to testify the relationship between specific characteristics of family or the caregiver and the aggressive behavior of the caregiver toward a child. The survey was conducted from 2nd to 30th of December 1996 among grade-six students in schools under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). During the survey, self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from the target group of 413 students. Among these, 81.8 per cent reported experiencing at least one form of aggressive behavior from their caregivers or parents. The findings revealed that the family relationship, economic status and caregiver's educational level reversibly correlated with the number of types of aggressive behavior with statistical significance at p-value < 0.05 and r = -0.7697, -0.2467 and -0.1641, respectively. The family crisis positively correlated with the number of types of aggressive behaviors with r = 0.1249 and p-value < 0.05. Furthermore, the results showed that students from nuclear families, living in congested surroundings, having a caregiver with experience of unskilled-work, unemployment or gambling had a higher mean score of the number of types of aggressive behaviors than their counterparts which were statistically significant by t and F tests (p-value < 0.05). Hence, the quality of the parent-and-child relationship should be strengthened and a proactive approach should be conducted for families potentially at risk.