Cognitive and psychophysiological predictors of inductive and physical discipline among parents of preschool-aged children.

Abstract

Physical discipline increases children’s risk of showing externalizing problems, whereas inductive discipline is negatively associated with children’s risk of externalizing problems. Studies of parenting infrequently examine both positive and negative discipline techniques despite use of inductive and physical discipline being inversely related to each other and to child externalizing problems. A burgeoning literature on the biopsychosocial determinants of parenting is identifying cognitive and physiological mechanisms underlying the initiation and regulation of positive and negative parenting techniques. This cross-sectional study of parents of preschool-aged children (N = 70; 89% mothers, 43% racial–ethnic minorities) advances the parenting literature by examining predictors of parents’ inductive and physical discipline use across their cognitive functioning, cardiovascular psychophysiology, children’s externalizing behavior, and their interactions with one another. No main effects or interactions predicted inductive discipline, but the interaction between parents’ inhibitory control and nonverbal intelligence predicted physical discipline, such that parents who scored low in both domains endorsed the most use of physical discipline in response to child misbehavior. Another interaction between parents’ sympathetic activity and child externalizing behavior also predicted physical discipline. These findings are discussed in relation to parenting interventions.

Bidirectional relations between parents’ discipline strategies and children’s inhibitory control from early to middle childhood.

“…The reasons for the present finding remain to be seen. Mothers’ use of inductive discipline tends to be more stable over time and less influenced by individual (e.g., physiological reactivity) or environmental factors (e.g., child behavior; Choe et al, 2023; Lansford et al, 2013). Thus, results might suggest that parents establish patterns of positive discipline earlier than they establish patterns of harsh discipline and that they persist in their use of positive discipline independent of contextual factors (Dallaire & Weinraub, 2005).…”