Importancia de los estilos de socialización parental en los roles del acoso entre pares / Importance of the parental socialization style in the roles of harassment among peers

RESUMEN

Resumen La familia es un escenario primordial en el estudio del acoso entre iguales, y particularmente la relación paterno-filial ha cobrado relevancia en la investigación científica sobre el tema. En este sentido, la socialización parental puede ser clave como factor de protección o de riesgo en la aparición de situaciones de acoso. El presente estudio aborda el análisis de estrategias y estilos de socialización de padres y madres en estudiantes de secundaria implicados en acoso escolar, como testigo, agresor, víctima y agresor-víctima. Se evaluaron 551 adolescentes de entre 12 y 18 años mediante un diseño comparativo de grupos naturales. Se aplicó el cuestionario del defensor del pueblo sobre violencia escolar ajustado para contexto colombiano y la escala de estilos de socialización parental en la adolescencia (ESPA 29). Como resultado se identificaron en los participantes altos niveles de estrategias de socialización basadas en coerción/imposición por parte de ambas figuras paternas. A diferencia de estudios previos, no se identifica relación entre ninguno de los estilos parentales de la madre y los roles asumidos por los estudiantes en situaciones de acoso, mientras que el estilo indulgente en el padre mostró relación estadísticamente significativa con los roles de testigo y agresor-víctima. Se discuten las implicaciones de los resultados resaltando la importancia de la crianza afectiva y el rol que desempeñan las figuras parentales en la socialización y formación de habilidades psicosociales que contribuyan en la disminución de las prácticas de acoso en niños y adolescentes.

ABSTRACT

Abstract The family is a primary scenario when studying harassment among equals. Particularly, the parent-child relationship has built up importance in scientific investigations regarding this topic. In this regard, parental socialization may be key as a protection or risk aspect in the occurrence of harassment situations. The development of this study focuses in the achievement of two main objectives. The first objective is aimed to identifying differences in the strategies of parental socialization in both parents, in accordance to the role of the participants involved in harassing behavior. The second objective is based in stablishing if the roles adopted by students have any co-relation with the parental socialization style. In order to fulfill these objectives an empirical, comparative, investigation took place that was based in the design of natural groups, which facilitates the comparison of different variables in social groups that belong to a same culture, e.g. students, where the analyzed variables source differences among individuals. The study had a base of 551 students (290 male and 261 female) from four different educational institutions, with ages ranging from 12 to 18 (µ = 15.2, of = 1.3). Harassment conducts were evaluated in accordance to the Defensor del Pueblo questionnaire, from a version adjusted to the Colombian context. Whereas the parental style of socialization was evaluated in accordance with Escala de Estilos de Socialización Parental en la Adolescencia (ESPA-29). The participant-type descriptive evaluation highlights that 296 (53.8 %) of the students take part as bully-victims, 95 (17.2 %) take part as non-involved, 87 (15.8 %) take part as victims, and 73 (13.2 %) take part as bullies. These roles were embraced similarly in men and women without a significant relationship between gender and the type of participant (χ2 = 5.328, p = .149 > .05). Concerning to the socialization strategies of parental figures, in the mother's case, the obtained data indicates that the main differences are found in the group of students who embrace the role of offender-victims. In this group, participants show a higher level of indifference that non-involved (p = .023 < .05) and bullies (p = .007 < .05), a higher level of physical coercion than non-involved (p = .000 < .05) and victims (p = .023 < .05), as well as a higher level of the strictness/imposition axis than non-involved (p = .001 < .05). The latest show higher verbal coercion (p = .009 < .05) and strictness/imposition (p = .032 < .05) than bullies. In the father's case, the obtained data also highlights the bully-victims as the group with higher ennui than non-involved (p = .000 < .05) and bullies (p = .046 < .05), higher indifference than non-involved (p = .000 < .05) and bullies (p = .010 < .05), higher physical coercion than non-involved (p = .000 < .05) and victims (p = .021 < .05), as well as a higher number than non-involved (p = .001 < .05) in the strictness/imposition axis. The most common parental style strategy in mothers is indulgent (n = 240, 43.6 %), followed by authoritative (n = 161, 29.2 %), neglectful (n = 102, 18.5 %) and last authoritarian (n = 48, 8.7 %). Meanwhile, the indulgent style is also the most common among fathers (n = 211, 38.3 %), followed by neglectful (n = 171, 31 %), authoritative (n = 109, 19.8 %) and authoritarian (n = 60, 10.9 %). This discards the existence of a significant association between the mother's socialization style and student's harassment roles. On the other hand, the indulgent style in fathers was significant in relation to the witnesses (χ2 = 16.88, p = .000 > .001; ϖ = .18, 1-β = .97) and the bully-victims (χ2 = 8.96, p = .03 > .05; ϖ = .14, 1-β = .80). The parenthood focused on fulfilling the children demands with low boundaries delimitation is reiterative in parents where indulgent is their most common style of parent socialization, which seems to be associated with an expectation to harass. This work highlights the important role that the parent figures play in the formation of psychosocial skills to the integration of children and teenagers. Furthermore, it features the importance of how parents build bonding relationships with their children.