Parental Discipline Practices Research Articles

Evaluation of Psychometric Properties, Construct Validity and Measurement Invariance Across Child's Disability and Gender for the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire APQ-GR (6–18) (Parent Form)

The study's main objective was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire APQ-GR (6–18) (Parent form). A total number of n = 1118 families were enrolled in the sample. More specifically, n = 1667 parents participated in the study [mothers: ( n = 1051) and fathers: ( n = 616)]. Exploratory Factor Analysis in a sub-sample of parents ( n = 555, comprising of the entire sample) supported a 6-factor model including dimensions of parenting such as Ιnvolvement (I), Positive Parenting (PP), Poor Monitoring/Supervision (PM/S), Inconsistent Discipline (ID), Corporal Punishment (CP) and Other Discipline Practices (ODP) and explained 54.437% of total variance. CFA confirmed the proposed 6-factor model and generated satisfactory goodness of fit indices ( χ2/ df=1.73 < 2 and p = .456, TLI = .983 ≥ 0.95, RMSEA = .056 < .080, CFI = .92 ≥ .90 and SRMR = .035 < .080). No ceiling or floor effects were observed. All nested models were evaluated across the parents' gender and demonstrated a good fit for mothers and fathers. In conclusion, the Greek Alabama Parenting Questionnaire APQ-GR (6–18) (parent form) demonstrated sufficient validity and reliability evidence for assessing parenting practices.

Prevalence of Parental Violent Discipline Toward Children: Findings From A Portuguese Population.

Despite recognizing the detrimental impact of parental violence on children's mental and physical health throughout their lives, violence remains an all-too-real part of life for many children around the globe. However, data on the child-reported prevalence of experienced family violence are scarce and primarily based on parental reports. This study aimed to broaden the body of evidence and measure the lifetime prevalence of child-reported experience of violent disciplinary practices perpetrated by parents and to identify its associated sociodemographic and economic factors. We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from 5,281 Generation XXI participants recruited from 2005 to 2006 in Porto, Portugal. Parental disciplinary practices were reported by 7-year-old children using the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale. Pearson's Chi-squared test was used to compare differences in child-reported frequencies of violent disciplinary practices by sociodemographic variables. We observed statistically significant differences in rates of violent disciplinary practices according to the child's and parent's gender. Specifically, fathers exhibited a higher likelihood than mothers to engage in psychological aggression and corporal punishment, while mothers were more prone to engage in severe and very severe physical assault. When fathers were the perpetrators, boys were more inclined than girls to report all forms of violent disciplinary measures, and when mothers were the perpetrators, boys were particularly susceptible to severe and very severe physical assault compared to girls. In our study, children reported being frequently subjected to violent parental disciplinary practices, independently of family socioeconomic background. Children were more likely to experience psychological aggression and corporal punishment if they were born into high-income families, while severe and very severe physical assaults were more common among children whose parents had lower educational levels. National public awareness of the negative effects of violent disciplinary practices is urgently needed, promoting child-friendly and nonviolent approaches to discipline.

Implications of intimate partner physical violence and substance misuse for parenting

AbstractApproximately 35%–45% of young married adults engage in intimate partner violence (IPV), and it is possible to reliably distinguish between general IPV and clinically significant IPV in a manner accepted both by DSM‐V & ICD‐11. IPV and alcohol misuse have been associated in many research designs, and experts now argue that alcohol misuse causes IPV. While less research exists on other substances like marijuana, there is clearly a moderate association between marijuana use and IPV, and that association appears to be dose‐dependent. Both IPV and substance use disorders (SUD), especially alcohol misuse, have been associated with a host of both internalizing and externalizing problems of children and adolescents. Research on the co‐morbid effects of IPV and substance misuse is relatively new but there are documented cumulative effects of IPV, problematic alcohol use, problematic drug use, and depressive symptoms on aggressive and neglectful parental disciplinary practices. Fortunately, research on the effects of both alcohol misuse and IPV shows that while both can have deleterious effects on children, the majority of children exposed to either IPV or alcohol misuse do not grow up to have diagnoses of emotional or behavioral problems. Support from one parent, a teacher, or extended family members, as well as the ability to maintain family rituals, serve as protective factors for children. Recommendations are made regarding reviews of assessment of IPV and substance misuse as well as a guide for conceptualizing and completing forensic evaluations involving IPV and substance misuse.

Parental disciplinary practices and internet addiction in adolescents

This study aimed to explore the relationship between parental disciplinary practices and internet addiction. 568 adolescents participated. A Sociodemographic Questionnaire, the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and the Dimensions of Discipline Inventory - Form C (DDI-C) were used. 73.1% of users with mild and moderate addiction were identified. Mothers showed greater use of all disciplinary dimensions. Differences were found only in the father's inductive discipline, depending on the family setting. However, there were no differences between adolescents from different family setting regarding internet addiction. Associations were observed between parental disciplinary dimensions and internet addiction. Finally, the punitive discipline of the mother and father and the inductive discipline of the mother, were predictors of internet addiction.

PARENTAL DISCIPLINARY PRACTICES SEEN THROUGH CHILDREN'S EYES

Although the word discipline, derived from the word disciplining, means teaching or training, it is associated with the application of punishments aimed at correcting inappropriate/improbable behavior (Knox, 2010, Larzelere & Kuhn 1993 cited in Zoysa, 2011). There is undeniably a special interest in parental disciplinary practices (DPP) (Straus & Stewart 1999) within several disciplines. In a country where the physical punishments are considered efficient and normal, presenting the realities regarding the way children are disciplined is more than necessary, it is almost vital. Starting from the premise that adults tend to become their parents (Zoysa, 2011, Fink, 2014), we are interested in finding out to what extent these milestones in education are still respected and how adolescents perceive DPP. 252 students answered online questionnaires and 48 teenagers participating in group discussions confirmed the cognitive theories according to which the focus in parental discipline must fall on moral internalization and autonomy (Baumrind, 1978, Grusec & Kuczyuski 1997). Internalization, along with the maintenance of the child's self-esteem and the parent-child relationship represents the, goals and finalities in fact of the application of effective disciplinary techniques (Grusec, Goodnow, 1994).

Associations between social isolation and parenting stress during the first wave of COVID-19 in Italian children with special educational needs

The parents of 413 children with typical development (TD) or special educational needs (SEN) filled in an online survey to investigate the associations between the restrictions introduced to face COVID-19 and parenting stress and parental disciplinary practices. The parents of children with SEN showed a significantly higher stress level than TD children's parents. However, they showed a lower inclination to overreact. In both groups, the parents who feel less supported, feel their needs threatened, and report having a child with more difficulties were more likely to exhibit parenting stress. Data on the associations between COVID-19 restrictions and the stress perceived by parents could help to focus the attention of the public health system on their parents' needs, leading to practices aimed to prevent parenting stress and burnout.

The Emergence of 5-Year-Olds' Behavioral Difficulties: Analyzing Risk and Protective Pathways in the United Kingdom and Germany.

This study aimed to advance our understanding of 5-year-olds’ behavioral difficulties by modeling and testing both mediational protective and risk pathways simultaneously. Drawing on two national samples from different Western European countries—the United Kingdom (13,053) and Germany (2,022), the proposed model considered observed sensitive parental interactive behaviors and tested child vocabulary as protective pathways connecting parental education with children’s behavioral outcomes; the risk pathways focused on negative parental disciplinary practices linking (low) parental education, parental distress, and children’s difficult temperament to children’s behavioral difficulties. Further, the tested model controlled for families’ income as well as children’s sex and formal child care attendance. Children with comparatively higher educated parents experienced more sensitive interactive behavior, had more advanced vocabulary, and exhibited fewer behavioral difficulties. Children with a comparatively higher level of difficult temperament or with parents who suffered from distress tended to experience more negative disciplinary behavior and exhibited more behavioral difficulties. Additionally, children’s vocabulary skills served as a mechanism mediating the association between parental education and children’s behavioral difficulties. Overall, we found similar patterns of results across the United Kingdom and Germany with both protective and risk pathways contributing simultaneously to children’s behavioral development. The findings suggest that promoting parents’ sensitive interactive behaviors, favorable disciplinary practices, and child’s vocabulary skills have potential for preventing early behavioral difficulties.

The longitudinal relations between disciplinary practices and emotion regulation in early years

AbstractThis article examines the reciprocal relationships between parental disciplinary practices and child emotion regulation in the first 3 years of life. Using three‐wave cross‐lagged panel models, more salient effects are found from parent to child than from child to parent at the very first stage. The stronger parent–child effects hold for both corrective and harsh disciplinary practices. Furthermore, the results indicate significant gender differences in the bidirectionality across time: for girls a parent–child–parent association is found in which corrective discipline significantly predicts child emotion regulation and child emotion regulation in turn predicts corrective discipline, whereas for boys, only a child–parent link emerges such that emotion regulation at time 2 is associated with corrective discipline at time 3. These findings portray the early transactional characteristics of parental disciplinary action and child emotion development as well as the gender‐differentiated effects in reciprocity.

Ethnicity and Parental Discipline Practices: A Cross‐National Comparison

AbstractObjectiveExamine whether the relationship between ethnicity and parental discipline practices is consistent across contexts.BackgroundHarsh discipline has been linked to negative child behaviors and adolescent outcomes. In examining harsh discipline, scholars have observed ethnic differences.MethodsWe use the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS‐K) for the United States and the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) for the United Kingdom. The samples include parents of children aged 7–11 years old (ECLS‐K N = 13,008, MCS N = 11,113). Using logistic regression, we model the associations between parental ethnicity and five disciplinary strategies (spanking, yelling, sending to timeout, discussing, and withdrawing privileges).ResultsBlack parents in the United States were more likely to use harsh physical discipline, whereas all ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom exhibited higher odds of using harsh physical discipline than did White parents. By contrast, Hispanic parents and parents from a general Other ethnic category were less likely to use harsh verbal discipline in the United States than White parents are, and Black and Asian parents were less likely than White parents to use harsh verbal discipline in the United Kingdom. White parents were more likely than other ethnic groups to use timeout across countries. Black and Asian parents were less likely to discuss with children in the United Kingdom; compared to White and Asian parents in the United States had lower odds of using discussion as discipline, but Hispanic parents had higher odds.ConclusionsEthnic minority parents are likely resorting to harsh physical parenting practices to socialize their children into conforming to social norms that may protect them from negative repercussions in society.

The Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Psychopathic Features on Juvenile Offending Criminal Careers to Age 18

Childhood maltreatment and inept parental disciplinary, attachment, and monitoring practices evidence a relationship with early and severe childhood and adolescent aggression and have figured prominently as causative factors in theoretical and empirical underpinnings of lifelong antisocial behavior. Abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction have been linked to both violent offending and higher scores on measures of dispositional tendencies associated with psychopathy. The current study incorporates these lines of research by examining a potential pathway by which cumulative adverse childhood experience exposure, rather than single exposures assessed independently, leads to chronic and serious juvenile offending. Specifically, we leverage a sample of 64,007 juvenile offenders who have aged out of the juvenile justice system to examine the extent to which the effects of traumatic exposure on age of onset (first arrest) as well as residential placement, total offenses, and serious, violent, and chronic offending up to age 18 are each mediated by psychopathic features. Results demonstrate that a substantial portion (37%–93%) of the effects of cumulative traumatic exposure on justice system outcomes is indirect, operating through these features, even after controlling for demographic and other criminogenic risk factors. Juvenile justice policy implications are discussed.

Are parental changes related to improvements in preschool children's disruptive behaviours?

ObjectiveTo investigate whether changes in parenting after behavioural parent training in routine clinical care are associated with improvements in preschool children's disruptive behaviours.MethodWe evaluated changes after parent training in maternal and paternal self‐reports of parental discipline practices parenting sense of competence, and parents' ratings of child disruptive behaviours in parents of 63 children, with a one group pretest–posttest design. We also compared parenting parameters in this clinical sample with a nonclinical sample (n = 121).ResultsMothers' self‐reports of parental discipline practices and parenting sense of competence significantly improved after behavioural parent training. Less over‐reactivity in both mothers and fathers was associated with fewer disruptive behaviours in children. After parent training, mothers' ratings of their discipline techniques did not differ anymore from those in the nonclinical sample.ConclusionPositive changes in parental discipline practices, particularly less over‐reactive parental behaviours, were related to a decrease of disruptive child behaviours.

Predictors of parental disciplinary practices and associations with child outcomes among Ghanaian preschoolers

Violent discipline can have harmful effects on child development, particularly behavioral outcomes. The majority of research on the topic has been conducted in high-income countries, despite the fact that high rates of physical discipline have been documented across low- and middle-income countries. In this study, we examined three forms of disciplinary practices—physical, psychological aggression, and nonviolent—among caregivers of preschoolers in Ghana. First, we assessed how child, caregiver, and household characteristics predicted the use of disciplinary practices. Endorsement of physical discipline, having a younger child, lower caregiver education, younger caregiver age, female caregivers, and having a female child were associated with higher use of physical punishment. Household size, female caregivers, endorsement of physical discipline, and having a female child were associated with higher use of psychological aggression. Higher caregiver education and having no male in the household were positively associated with nonviolent punishment practices, while child age was negatively predictive. Second, we examined how punishment practices predicted children’s social-behavioral and academic outcomes. Physical punishment predicted lower approaches to learning and literacy skills, and nonviolent punishment predicted higher approaches to learning, social-emotional skills, and literacy skills. Third, we examined if associations of punishment and child outcomes were moderated by child age and sex. Negative associations of physical punishment with numeracy skills were larger for younger children; negative associations of psychological aggression with social-emotional skills were larger for girls.

Psychometric Evaluation of a Brief Assessment of Parents' Disciplinary Alternatives.

The majority of strategies designed to assess parental discipline practices typically focus on ineffective or adverse discipline options. When more comprehensive measures are utilized, parents are often expressly asked to report their use of nonphysical discipline options but such an approach signals to parents that they should report implementing such choices, thereby rendering it susceptible to social desirability. Rather than cueing parents with possible discipline options, the Production of Discipline Alternatives (PDA) is a very brief parent-report coding scheme of the discipline options parents freely generate to an open-ended question after reading a short vignette. The current study investigated the inter-rater reliability and stability as well as concurrent and predictive validity from the coding of this brief qualitative prompt using three waves of longitudinal data collected from mothers and fathers (prenatally, child age 6 months, and child age 18 months). Findings demonstrated strong inter-rater reliability (between independent coders) and stability of discipline alternatives provided by parents across nearly two years. Concurrent and predictive validity were also observed; specifically, mothers and fathers who generated proportionally more physical discipline options were more likely to approve of physical discipline, to be inclined to punish perceived misbehavior, to prefer authoritarian parenting approaches, to evidence greater child abuse risk, and to report more frequent use of physical discipline. The current findings imply the PDA may have research utility as well as potential value in screenings at primary and integrated care settings relevant for prevention and intervention efforts.

Protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial evaluating a parenting with home visitation programme to prevent physical and emotional abuse of children in Indonesia: the Families First Programme

IntroductionEvery year, up to 1 billion children are victims of violence worldwide. Most child abuse takes place in the context of punishment. The Families First Programme, an adaptation of the...

Effect of Parental Corporal Punishment on Endorsement of Its Use: Moderated Mediation by Parent Gender and Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment.

Previous research has examined the factors that place an individual at a risk of using harsh discipline on children. Chief among these predictors is an individual's own experience of corporal punishment, as well as favorable attitudes toward corporal punishment as a parenting strategy. However, few studies have examined the relationships among these variables in emerging adults. Thus, the current study advanced this area of research by examining how attitudes toward corporal punishment mediated the association between the experience of corporal punishment within the past year and the endorsement of corporal punishment as a future parenting strategy of choice among emerging adults when presented with a vignette. In addition, the current study examined gender differences among study variables, including participants' parental disciplinary practices and whether participants were more accepting of using corporal punishment against a boy or girl in a hypothetical vignette. Participants (N = 393; Mage = 19.21) completed an online survey that included a hypothetical vignette depicting child misbehavior. Results from the current study suggested the experience of corporal punishment from mothers appeared to have more of an influence on the decision to endorse corporal punishment in the vignette for both emerging adult males and females. The findings from the current study highlight the importance of reducing the use of corporal punishment as a discipline strategy, as the experience of corporal punishment appears to shape attitudes which may favor future use of the practice.

Jamaican Mothers' Perceptions of Children's Strategies for Resisting Parental Rules and Requests.

Research on Jamaican socialization of children has primarily focused on parental discipline practices. Little is known about children’s responses to parental attempts to control their behavior. The present study investigated mothers’ perceptions of children’s strategies for resisting their rules and requests. Thirty mothers living in Kingston and St. Andrew, Jamaica, participated in a 1- to 1.5-h semi-structured, open-ended interview regarding their 8- to 12-year-old children. Mothers reported that their children’s resistance strategies included assertive refusal, arguing, ignoring/avoiding, attitude, and negotiation. Most mothers disapproved of their children’s actions and responded with power-assertive strategies such as physical punishment, psychological control, forced compliance, and threats. Few mothers responded with autonomy support strategies including accommodation and reasoning. The findings provided insight into the ways Jamaican children use their agency to protect their autonomy despite their mothers’ greater power, and the relational nature of children’s influence on their mothers’ behaviors and reactions. More research is needed to expand our knowledge of child agency in Afro-Caribbean families and the various ways that parents may support their growing autonomy that is socially constructive.

Validation de la version française d’une échelle évaluant les pratiques disciplinaires de parents d’enfants d’âge scolaire

Several decades of research have emphasized the importance of parenting in the development of behavioral problems in children. Prevention and intervention for these difficulties require the assessment of parental practices with reliable measures. This study investigated the psychometric properties of the French version of the Parenting Scale (PS; Arnold et al., 1993). The original version of this scale has shown its usefulness by allowing the identification of the parents whose strategies of discipline are counterproductive, and by quantifying the effects of certain parenting programs. The study included 464 mothers and 347 fathers of elementary school-aged children (between the age of 4 and 13) from Switzerland and Belgium. Parents completed the PS and a measure of child behavior, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997). Eight different factorial structures were identified in the literature and tested with Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA). The results indicate that the two-factor model — laxness and over-reactivity — proposed by Irvine et al. (1999) best fitted the data. Indeed, it led to the lowest values of RMSEA and SRMR (1999). Furthermore the TLI and CFI indices were greater than .90, supporting a satisfactory fit of the data. Results from multi-group CFA analyses indicated that this factor structure did not vary across child sex and age, or parental sex. In this French version, laxness and over-reactivity had good internal consistency when analyzing either the total sample, or when separating the data according to the sex of the parents or the child's age group. It was possible to propose normative values of laxness and over-reactivity for mothers and fathers, as well as according to the age of the child, which will be useful for clinicians assessing parenting discipline practices of their clients. The results indicated that mothers rated themselves as more over-reactive than fathers (t(809) = 2.89, P < .01, d = .21), but the effect size was small. The difference was non-significant for laxness. The sex and age of the child, as well as the parents’ age did not affect over-reactivity and laxness. However, a weak link was found between education level and over-reactivity, but only for fathers (r = .19, P < .01). The association between the two factors and the child's adjustment were also evaluated. The highest correlation appeared to be between over-reactivity and the Total Score on the SDQ (rs = .28, p < .001). Correlations between over-reactivity and externalized problems (behavior and hyperactivity) were higher than those obtained with internalized problems. As for laxness, the correlations were lower: the highest one was with behavioral disorders (rs = .15, p < .001). Over the entire sample (R2 = .09, β = .27, P < .001) and in fathers (R2 = .10, β = .32, P < .001), over-reactivity was the best predictor of the child's difficulties regardless of the sex of the child. In mothers, both factors predicted the child's difficulties (R2 = .08, P < .001), with over-reactivity explaining more variance of total SDQ (β = .22, P < .001) than laxness (β = .14, P < .05). Over-reactivity appears to correspond to the construct of “coercive discipline” theorized and intensively studied by Patterson and colleagues (1982), which represents parents’ tendencies to criticize their child and to engage in severe disciplinary interactions. In summary, the Parenting Scale provides a quick and inexpensive measure of dysfunctional discipline practices. In contrast to more comprehensive measures of parental attitudes and beliefs, the PS items are specific enough to target concrete behaviors regarding parenting interventions. The PS can therefore be particularly useful in planning cognitive and behavioral therapy, as well as in evaluating the effects of treatment.

Strategic action or self-control? Adolescent information management and delinquency

Recent scholarship has begun to challenge the prevailing view that children are passive recipients of parental socialization, including the common belief that parental disciplinary practices are central to explaining adolescent problem behaviors. This research shows that children exert a significant influence over parents via information management, or the degree to which children disclose information about their behavior to parents. Despite the incorporation of child information management into contemporary models of parenting, significant theoretical and empirical concerns cast doubt on its utility over classic parent-centered approaches. The current paper addresses these concerns and adjudicates between disparate definitions of adolescent information management in two ways. First, it provides a theoretically grounded definition of information management as agentic behavior. Second, it specifies a model that tests definitions of secret keeping as agentic against a non-agentic definition of secret keeping supplied by criminological theories of self-control. The model is estimated with three four-wave cross-lagged panel models, which disentangle the interrelationships between parenting, child concealment of information, and child problem behavior in a sample of high risk youth. The results offer support for a definition of concealment as strategic and self-regarding, and have implications for research on delinquency, parent-child interactions, and child agency.

Punitive Parenting and Delinquency: The Mediating Role of Short-term Mindsets

Drawing from life history theory and developmental perspectives, we test the hypothesis that the relation between parental discipline practices and delinquency is explained in part by short-term mindsets. We argue that such practices induce an orientation towards the here-and-now rather than the future, which, in turn, promotes delinquency. We used longitudinal data (N = 1,197) from the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood into Adulthood (z-proso). We distinguished between two types of disciplining practices, corporal and inconsistent punishment, which map onto two main environmental parameters, harshness and unpredictability. Results show that short-term mindsets, operationalized by impulsivity and low future orientation, mediate the relation between corporal and erratic punishment and delinquency, with impulsivity being the most important mediator.

A Toddler Parenting Intervention in Primary Care for Caregivers With Depression Symptoms.

Caregiver depression impacts parenting behaviors and has deleterious effects on child behavior. Evidence-based interventions to address parenting have not been adapted for use with depressed caregivers in pediatric primary care settings. Our study examined the feasibility and explored outcomes of an evidence-based parenting program implemented in primary care and adapted for caregivers with depressive symptoms caring for toddlers. We conducted a randomized controlled trial with a wait-list control. Participants were caregivers who screened positive for depressive symptoms in pediatric settings with a toddler. Our study was implemented from July 2011 to June 2012. We adapted the Incredible Years Parents, Babies and Toddlers program with the addition of depression psychoeducation (12 weekly sessions), and assessed caregivers at baseline and immediately post-intervention. We assessed participation rates, depressive symptoms, parenting discipline practices, social support, and parenting stress. Our results revealed that 32 caregivers participating in the intervention group had significantly greater improvement in self-reported parenting discipline practices compared to the 29 wait-list control group caregivers. We found no differences between groups in depressive symptoms, social support, or parenting stress. Our study demonstrated that the average attendance was poor (mean attendance=3.7 sessions). We adapted an evidence-based parenting intervention for caregivers with depressive symptoms and toddlers in primary care; however, participation was challenging. Alternative intervention strategies are needed to reach and retain low-income caregivers with depression symptoms as they face multiple barriers to participation in groups within center-based services. Trial Registration Clinical Trials.gov identifier NCT01464619.