International Journal of Behavioral Development

A special section of the International Journal of Behavioral Development (IJBD) devoted to the topic ‘Family and Cultural Contexts of Parental Discipline and Children’s Adjustment.’

Effective discipline involves the use of negative consequences, including reasoning as well as modest levels of power assertion, to discourage unacceptable behavior. A brief history of changing views of discipline is presented and recent positions outlined. Successful discipline requires the imposition of clear and consistent rules, autonomy support, perspective-taking, and acceptance rather than rejection of the child. There are different kinds of negative consequences that are evaluated differently by children as well as having different effects on their behavior. In addition, there are individual differences in how children react to a specific form of discipline, and parents need to be aware of what those differences are. Cultural research underlines the fact that the meaning children assign to specific parenting actions is crucial in determining discipline success. When discipline is seen as normative, fair, and a sign of caring its form, within limits, is less important.

Parental disciplining of their misbehaving children continues to draw much research attention. Baumrind’s typology of parenting styles has been frequently used to classify Chinese parenting as more authoritarian. Although influential, research tends predominantly to focus on abstract characterization. Yet, parenting is a practice informed by specific cultural ethnotheories and enacted in response to their children’s behavior in specific contexts. Our study attempted to explore this type of disciplining in situ. We interviewed 89 mothers from Taiwan (45) and Hong Kong (44) with children from near the end of infancy to beginning-school age. Mothers were asked to share their disciplinary strategies for handling four hypothetical yet common situations in which children misbehaved. These situations varied in setting, social distance among participants, possible consequences, nature of rules involved, and degree of conflict. We found five strategy types. Moreover, mothers prioritized them differently for different situations. Finally, we identified four ways of using strategies: single, contingent, simultaneous, or ratcheting-up. Depending on their strategies in a given situation, these uses also varied. We were compelled to conclude that Chinese parenting is more multi-faceted than has been typically portrayed in research. Implications for future research on parenting across cultures are discussed.

Coercive responses to children’s behavior are well recognized to be problematic for children’s adjustment. Less well understood is how parental social cognition is linked to discipline. In this study we sought to link metaparenting—parents’ thoughts about their parenting—to the use of coercive discipline. We predicted that mothers who engaged in more metaparenting, thus reflecting more deliberate parenting, would use corporal punishment less frequently and instead engage in non-coercive discipline. We also expected that mothers who engaged in more metaparenting would report closer relationships with their children. In order to assess a diverse sample, data were collected from approximately equal numbers of African-American, European-American, and Mexican-American mothers. Participants included 113 mothers with target children in three age groups, ranging from 2 to 12 years. The results indicated reports of corporal punishment as well as non-coercive discipline did not significantly differ across child sex and child age groups, but did differ significantly across race/ethnicity. Reports of frequency of metaparenting also differed across racial/ethnic groups; African-American mothers reported more metaparenting than European-American mothers on three of four subscales. Metaparenting was significantly related to reports of the mother–child relationship but in the opposite direction than predicted. Based on these results, future research directions linking parental social cognition to discipline are proposed.

There is strong evidence of a positive association between corporal punishment and negative child outcomes, but previous studies have suggested that the manner in which parents implement corporal punishment moderates the effects of its use. This study investigated whether severity and justness in the use of corporal punishment moderate the associations between frequency of corporal punishment and child externalizing and internalizing behaviors. This question was examined using a multicultural sample from eight countries and two waves of data collected one year apart. Interviews were conducted with 998 children aged 7–10 years, and their mothers and fathers, from China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Thailand, and the United States. Mothers and fathers responded to questions on the frequency, severity, and justness of their use of corporal punishment; they also reported on the externalizing and internalizing behavior of their child. Children reported on their aggression. Multigroup path models revealed that across cultural groups, and as reported by mothers and fathers, there is a positive relation between the frequency of corporal punishment and externalizing child behaviors. Mother-reported severity and father-reported justness were associated with child-reported aggression. Neither severity nor justness moderated the relation between frequency of corporal punishment and child problem behavior. The null result suggests that more use of corporal punishment is harmful to children regardless of how it is implemented, but requires further substantiation as the study is unable to definitively conclude that there is no true interaction effect.

A wealth of research suggests that youth whose parents use corporal punishment are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior during childhood and adolescence. Questions remain, however, about: (a) whether this relationship extends reliably to samples outside the US and Canada; (b) whether corporal punishment is associated with antisocial behavior in adulthood rather than just childhood and adolescence; (c) whether the association depends on which parents use corporal punishment; and (d) what theoretical mechanisms account for the link between corporal punishment and antisocial behavior. The present study uses data collected from young adults in Asia, Europe, and North America to address each of these issues. Net of statistical controls, including retrospective measures of childhood misbehavior and abusive parenting, findings reveal that antisocial behavior in all three regions is higher among young adults who report experiencing corporal punishment in childhood. Overall, this relationship is least likely to emerge when corporal punishment comes only from fathers and most likely to emerge when it comes from both parents. Further, results suggest that self-control and social concern, but not conventional attitudes, mediate a portion of the association between retrospective reports of childhood corporal punishment and antisocial behavior in early adulthood.

Social scientists are generally in agreement that spanking is not an especially effective method of discipline and is associated with a variety of behavioral and mental health problems in children. Interventions that have focused on disseminating this empirical research have met with some success in changing pro-spanking attitudes. However, given the strong connection between conservative Christian religious orientation and pro-spanking attitudes and behaviors, many conservative Christians may not be compelled by the empirical research. The current study examined the effectiveness of two interventions: an empirical research intervention that focused on the empirical evidence of the ineffectiveness and potential harm of spanking, and a religion intervention that provided a progressive interpretation of biblical passages that are sometimes used by Christians to justify spanking. A sample of 121 college students (87% female; 34% male; Mage = 20) attending a private, Christian, liberal arts university were randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions: 1) Research Only, 2) Research and Religion, and 3) Control. Four weeks prior to the intervention sessions, students completed a demographic form and the Attitudes Toward Spanking (ATS) scale. Following the intervention, students completed the ATS scale a second time. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated a significant Time × Condition interaction for ATS scores, indicating that ATS scores decreased in both the Research Only condition (Mpre = 40.56, Mpost = 37.03) and the Research and Religion condition (Mpre = 41.23; Mpost = 33.29) but not the Control condition (Mpre = 40.17; Mpost = 40.78), F(2, 78) = 10.03, p = .001. Subsequent analyses indicated that ATS scores in both intervention conditions decreased compared to the control condition and that a greater decrease in favorable attitudes toward spanking was observed for the Research and Religion condition compared to the Research Only condition.

Every day, almost one billion children around the world experience violent punishment. Eliminating all violence against children is a key target of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This is a monumental challenge due to the diversity of cultural, economic and social contexts in which children live. Violence-prevention programs developed in wealthy countries cannot be assumed to be transferable to low- and middle-income countries. We assessed the relevance of Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting (PDEP) to 525 parents living in countries with high (n = 201), medium (n = 166), or low (n = 158) Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Indices. The outcome measures were parents’ satisfaction with the program and their perceptions of its impact on their parenting. Across IHDI categories, almost all parents were “mostly” or “very satisfied” with the overall program (98.4%), the PDEP parent book (97.9%), and the program activities (97.8%). Parent satisfaction scores were higher in the Low IHDI category than in the High IHDI category. Across IHDI categories, large majorities of parents perceived PDEP as having positive impacts on their parenting. While parents in the Medium IHDI category had the strongest perceptions of PDEP’s positive impact, more than 90% of parents in the Low IHDI category believed that the program will help them to understand their children’s development and feelings, communicate better with their children, control their anger, and build stronger relationships with their children. PDEP is a promising tool for preventing punitive violence against children across human development contexts.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations of children’s emotion knowledge (and its components) and socially appropriate behavior to peer likability in a sample of Italian preschool children at two time-points. At both Time 1 (T1; n = 46 boys, 42 girls) and a year later at Time 2 (T2; n = 26 boys, 22 girls), children’s emotion knowledge (i.e., emotion recognition, situation knowledge) was assessed, teachers evaluated children’s socially appropriate behavior, and peer likability was measured using a sociometric procedure. A two-wave autoregressive cross-lagged model indicated that children’s T1 emotion recognition was associated with higher T2 socially appropriate behavior, and children’s T1 socially appropriate behavior was related to higher T2 peer likability, even after controlling for stability in the constructs. Socially appropriate behavior mediated the relation between preschool children’s emotion recognition and peer likability. No bidirectional associations were found. The results support the notion that teacher training should focus on promoting children’s emotion knowledge to create a classroom atmosphere characterized by positive social behaviors and harmonious peer relationships across the preschool years.

This study investigated the psychometrics of a recently developed global rating measure of videotaped parent-infant interaction, the Manchester Assessment of Caregiver–Infant Interaction (MACI), in a normative sample. Inter-rater reliability, stability over time, and convergent and discriminant validity were tested. Six-minute play interactions were blind-rated by trained coders in 147 healthy mother-infant dyads at 3–10 months postpartum using the MACI; 51% were re-assessed 4 or 7 months later. Infant cognitive functioning, language and temperament, parent-reported infant warmth and invasion, parental mood, and the parent’s own recalled experiences of being parented were measured. We report the internal psychometrics of the MACI, evidence of stability as predicted, and inter-rater reliability. MACI caregiver sensitive responsiveness showed convergent validity with parental state of mind (mood at 3–4 months; report of own childhood care and overprotection), while MACI infant affect (but not the caregiver scales) was associated with parent-rated infant warmth. All MACI scales showed discriminant validity with concurrent cognitive and language developmental status, and most temperament dimensions. In conclusion, the MACI demonstrates utility, reliability and preliminary validity data in a normative sample, which complements previous work using the MACI. Follow-up is needed to test predictive validity. The findings inform further improvements to the tool, and may guide those looking for a relatively brief way to examine the global qualities of parent, infant and dyadic interaction.

Spline growth modelling is a popular tool to model change processes with distinct phases and change points in longitudinal studies. Focusing on linear spline growth models with two phases and a fixed change point (the transition point from one phase to the other), we detail how to find optimal data collection designs that maximize the efficiency of detecting key parameters in the spline models, holding the total number of data points or sample size constant. We identify efficient designs for the cases where (a) the exact location of the change point is known (complete certainty), (b) only the interval that contains the change point is known (partial certainty), and (c) no prior knowledge on the location of the change point is available (zero certainty). We conclude with recommendations for optimal number and allocation of data collection points.