Influence of Parental messages on the aggressiveness of teenagers

Aim. The aim of the study is to find what Parental messages (PM) modern Bulgarian teenagers receive in the process of important social and cultural changes in the post-totalitarian society and which ones are ‘responsible’ for the growing aggression in and outside schools. The Parental Messages are statements to the younger generation made by the parents that are transmitted in the socio-psychic and the sociocultural space as undisputable rules, pieces of wisdom and values, i.e. they form both the content of the Parent Ego state and the sociocultural Parent governing the behaviour and the attitude of the people. Methods. We chose 64 commonly known in the Bulgarian sociocultural space statements which were presented to 284 teenagers aged 14-18 to find out what messages the contemporary teenagers receive from their parents. Then we chose 40 of the teenagers and in addition we tested them with the Buss-Durkee inventory. The Parental messages received by the aggressive and the non-aggressive teenagers were compared. Results. The study found significant differences in the Parental messages received by the two groups which is a premise for different content of the Parent Ego state and different behavior of the two groups. Conclusions. The results obtained so far lead to the conclusion that the Parental messages the aggressive adolescents were given from their parents in childhood and continue to be given during adolescence take the form of the content of the Parent Ego state and in this case a Parent who is able to directly realise itself in aggressive behaviour because this is the behaviour which is ‘allowed’ by the parents (mainly by the fathers). Parents teach their children to be aggressive, though they are not likely to fully realise that. Originality. A study with the author’s own methodology (questionnaire about the Parental Messages) was conducted among teenagers and the results were compared to the results from the Buss-Durkey inventory.

Strategies to Combat Bullying: Parental Responses to Bullies, Bystanders, and Victims

Despite numerous studies on the topic of bullying, there remains a dearth of information on how parents respond to bullying and the extent to which they are aware of their child’s bullying experiences. Using qualitative data from 54 parents in a southeastern state, we explore advice that parents give their children about how to respond when their child is a bullying victim and a bystander in a bullying incident and how fearful parents are of their child being a victim of bullying and reasons behind their fear. Findings demonstrate that parental messages about responding to bullying victimization and intervening on behalf of other bully victims generally mirror those provided by schools as part of their bullying prevention efforts. However, misunderstandings about bullying and bullying responses among parents limit the effectiveness of the strategies they suggest for their children. Implications for bullying prevention programs and research are also discussed.