Top

Gepubliceerd in:

06-01-2022 | Original Paper

Parental Discipline, Child Inhibitory Control and Prosocial Behaviors: The Indirect Relations via Child Sympathy

Auteurs: H. Melis Yavuz, Sebastian Dys, Tina Malti

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Child and Family Studies | Uitgave 5/2022

Abstract

Parents’ discipline and children’s inhibitory control are important predictors of children’s prosocial behaviors. Yet few studies have examined how these factors are related across early and middle childhood. In the current study, we examined the relations between parental disciplinary techniques (i.e., power assertion, love withdrawal, other-oriented induction, and disappointment) and child inhibitory control with child prosocial behaviors. We also examined the indirect role of child sympathy in these associations and investigated these associations in early and middle childhood years to assess the moderating role of age. We collected data from the caregivers of 4-, 6- and 8-year-old children (N = 301; M_age = 6.46, SD = 1.54; 54% males) in Canada. Results revealed that other-oriented induction (i.e., reasoning aiming to make the child understand the association between their actions and another’s distress) and disappointment (i.e., showing displeasure with the child’s behavior) were indirectly related to prosocial behaviors via higher child sympathy. Children’s inhibitory control was positively associated with their prosocial behaviors directly and, for 6- and 8-year-olds, indirectly via sympathy. Parental disappointment was related to children’s sympathy for 6- and 8-year-olds, but not for 4-year-olds, while children’s inhibitory control was more strongly associated with sympathy for 4- and 6-year-olds as compared to 8-year-olds. Overall, the results show that parental discipline practices and child temperament differentially influence child prosocial outcomes at different ages.

vorige artikel What Parents and Children Say When Talking about Children’s Gratitude: A Thematic Analysis

volgende artikel Adolescent Coping with Peer Exclusion: A Person-Centered Analog Approach

Acar, I. H., Rudasill, K. M., Molfese, V., Torquati, J., & Prokasky, A. (2015). Temperament and preschool children’s peer interactions. Early Education and Development, 26(4), 479–495. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2015.1000718.CrossRef

Barber, B. K. (1996). Parental psychological control: Revisiting a neglected construct. Child Development, 67(6), 3296–3319. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01915.x.CrossRefPubMed

Berndt, T. J. (1979). Developmental changes in conformity to peers and parents. Developmental Psychology, 15(6), 608–616. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.15.6.608.CrossRef

Brody, G. H., & Shaffer, D. R. (1982). Contributions of parents and peers to children’s moral socialization. Developmental Review, 2(1), 31–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/0273-2297(82)90003-X.CrossRef

Brajša-Žganec, A., & Hanzec, I. (2014). Social development of preschool children in Croatia: Contributions of child temperament, maternal life satisfaction and rearing practices. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23, 105–117. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-012-9696-8.CrossRef

Brannick, M. T., Chan, D., Conway, J. M., Lance, C. E., & Spector, P. E. (2010). What is method variance and how can we cope with it? A panel discussion. Organizational Research Methods, 13(3), 407–420. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428109360993.CrossRef

Carlo, G., Knight, G. P., McGinley, M., & Hayes, R. (2011a). The roles of parental inductions, moral emotions, and moral cognitions in prosocial tendencies among Mexican American and European American early adolescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 31(6), 757–781. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431610373100.CrossRef

Carlo, G., McGinley, M., Hayes, R., Batenhorst, C., & Wilkinson, J. (2007). Parenting styles or practices? Parenting, sympathy, and prosocial behaviors among adolescents. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 168(2), 147–176. https://doi.org/10.3200/GNTP.168.2.147-176.CrossRefPubMed

Carlo, G., Mestre, M. V., Samper, P., Tur, A., & Armenta, B. E. (2011b). The longitudinal relations among dimensions of parenting styles, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, and prosocial behaviors. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 35(2), 116–124. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025410375921.CrossRef

Chaplin, T. M., & Aldao, A. (2012). Gender differences in emotion expression in children: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 139(4), 735–765. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030737.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Colasante, T., Zuffianò, A., Bae, N. Y., & Malti, T. (2014). Inhibitory control and moral emotions: Relations to reparation in early and middle childhood. Journal of Genetic Psychology: Research and Theory on Human Development, 175(5–6), 511–527. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.2014.976535.CrossRef

Cornell, A. H., & Frick, P. J. (2007). The moderating effects of parenting styles in the association between behavioral inhibition and parent-reported guilt and empathy in preschool children. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 36(3), 305–318. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374410701444181.CrossRef

Curran, P. J., West, S. G., & Finch, J. F. (1996). The robustness of test statistics to nonnormality and specification error in confirmatory factor analysis. Psychological Methods, 1(1), 16–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.1.1.16.CrossRef

Davis, A. N., & Carlo, G. (2018). The roles of parenting practices, sociocognitive /emotive traits, and prosocial behaviors in low-income adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 62, 140–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2017.11.011.CrossRefPubMed

Dekovic, M., & Janssens, J. M. (1992). Parents’ child-rearing style and child’s sociometric status. Developmental Psychology, 28(5), 925–932. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.925.CrossRef

Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750.CrossRefPubMed

Diener, M. L., & Kim, D. Y. (2004). Maternal and child predictors of preschool children’s social competence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 25(1), 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2003.11.006.CrossRef

Dys, S. P., Peplak, J., Colasante, T., & Malti, T. (2019). Children’s sympathy and sensitivity to excluding economically disadvantaged peers. Developmental Psychology, 55, 482–487. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000549.CrossRefPubMed

Eisenberg, N., Eggum, N. D., & Di Giunta, L. (2010). Empathy-related responding: Associations with prosocial behavior, aggression, and intergroup relations. Social Issues and Policy Review, 4(1), 143–180. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-2409.2010.01020.x.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Eisenberg, N., & Fabes, R. A. (1998). Prosocial development. In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (pp. 701–778). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Murphy, B., Karbon, M., Smith, M., & Maszk, P. (1996). The relations of children’s dispositional empathy-related responding to their emotionality, regulation, and social functioning. Developmental Psychology, 32(2), 195–209. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.32.2.195.CrossRef

Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., & Spinrad, T. L. (2006). Prosocial behavior. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 646–718). Wiley.

Eisenberg, N., Michalik, N., Spinrad, T. L., Hofer, C., Kupfer, A., Valiente, C., Liew, J., Cumberland, A., & Reiser, M. (2007). The relations of effortful control and impulsivity to children’s sympathy: A longitudinal study. Cognitive Development, 22(4), 544–567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2007.08.003.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2015a). Prosocial development. In M. E. Lamb & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science: Socioemotional processes (7th Ed., Vol. 3, pp. 610–656). John Wiley & Sons.

Eisenberg, N., & Valiente, C. (2002). Parenting and children’s prosocial and moral development. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Practical issues in parenting (2nd ed., Vol. 5., pp. 111–142). Erlbaum.

Eisenberg, N., VanSchyndel, S. K., & Hofer, C. (2015b). The association of maternal socialization in childhood and adolescence with adult offsprings’ sympathy/caring. Developmental Psychology, 51(1), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038137.CrossRefPubMed

Eisinga, R., Grotenhuis, M., & Pelzer, B. (2013). The reliability of a two-item scale: Pearson, Cronbach, or Spearman-Brown? International Journal of Public Health, 58(4), 637–642. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-012-0416-3.CrossRefPubMed

Ensor, R., Spencer, D., & Hughes, C. (2011). ‘You feel sad?’ emotion understanding mediates effects of verbal ability and mother–child mutuality on prosocial behaviors: Findings from 2 years to 4 years. Social Development, 20(1), 93–110. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00572.x.CrossRef

Gershoff, E. T., Grogan-Kaylor, A., Lansford, J. E., Chang, L., Zelli, A., Deater-Deckard, K., & Dodge, K. A. (2010). Parent discipline practices in an international sample: Associations with child behaviors and moderation by perceived normativeness. Child Development, 81(2), 487–502. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01409.x.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Goodman, R. (1997). The strengths and difficulties questionnaire: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38(5), 581–586. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01545.x.CrossRefPubMed

Grusec, J. E., & Goodnow, J. J. (1994). Impact of parental discipline methods on the child’s internalization of values: A reconceptualization of current points of view. Developmental Psychology, 30(1), 4–19. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.30.1.4.CrossRef

Guevara, I. P., Cabrera, V. E., Gonzalez, M. R., & Devis, J. V. (2015). Empathy and sympathy as mediators between parental inductive discipline and prosocial behavior in Colombian families. International Journal of Psychological Research, 8(2), 34–48. https://doi.org/10.21500/20112084.1508.CrossRef

Gulseven, Z. (2015). Longitudinal relations among parenting daily hassles, child rearing, and prosocial behaviors in Turkish children [Unpublished master’s thesis]. University of Missouri-Columbia.

Hao, J. (2017). Do children with better inhibitory control donate more? Differentiating between early and middle childhood and cool and hot inhibitory control. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 2182 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02182.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Hoffman, M. L., & Saltzstein, H. D. (1967). Parent discipline and the child’s moral development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5(1), 45–57. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0024189.CrossRefPubMed

Hoffman, M. L. (2000). Empathy and moral development: Implications for caring and justice. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511805851.

Hughes, C., White, A., Sharpen, J., & Dunn, J. (2000). Antisocial, angry, and unsympathetic: “Hard-to-manage” preschoolers’ peer problems and possible cognitive influences. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 41(2), 169–179. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021963099005193.CrossRef

Kelloway, E. K. (2015). Using mplus for structural equation modeling. Sage.

Kienbaum, J. (2014). The development of sympathy from 5 to 7 years: Increase, decline or stability? A longitudinal study. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 468. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00468.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Kline, R. B. (2010). Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling. The Guilford Press.

Knafo, A., & Plomin, R. (2006). Parental discipline and affection and children’s prosocial behavior: Genetic and environmental links. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(1), 147–164. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.1.147.CrossRefPubMed

Kochanska, G. (1991). Socialization and temperament in the development of guilt and conscience. Child Development, 62(6), 1379–1392. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1991.tb01612.x.CrossRefPubMed

Kochanska, G., Barry, R. A., Jimenez, N. B., Hollatz, A. L., & Woodard, J. (2009). Guilt and effortful control: Two mechanisms that prevent disruptive developmental trajectories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(2), 322–333. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015471.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Kochanska, G., Murray, K., & Coy, K. C. (1997). Inhibitory control as a contributor to conscience in childhood: From toddler to early school age. Child Development, 68(2), 263–277. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131849.CrossRefPubMed

Krevans, J., & Gibbs, J. C. (1996). Parents’ use of inductive discipline: Relations to children’s empathy and prosocial behavior. Child Development, 67(6), 3263–3277. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01913.x.CrossRefPubMed

Locke, L. M., & Prinz, R. J. (2002). Measurement of parental discipline and nurturance. Clinical Psychology Review, 22(6), 895–929. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-7358(02)00133-2.CrossRefPubMed

Malti, T., & Dys, S. P. (2018). From being nice to being kind: Development of prosocial behaviors. Current Opinion in Psychology, 20, 45–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.07.036.CrossRefPubMed

Malti, T., Eisenberg, N., Kim, H., & Buchmann, M. (2013). Developmental trajectories of sympathy, moral emotion attributions, and moral reasoning: The role of parental support. Social Development, 22(4), 773–793. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.CrossRef

Malti, T., Ongley, S. F., Peplak, J., Chaparro, M. P., Buchmann, M., Zuffianò, A., & Cui, L. (2016). Children’s sympathy, guilt, and moral reasoning in helping, cooperation, and sharing: A 6-year longitudinal study. Child Development, 87(6), 1783–1795. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12632.CrossRefPubMed

Maxwell, S. E., & Cole, D. A. (2007). Bias in cross-sectional analyses of longitudinal mediation. Psychological Methods, 12(1), 23–44. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.12.1.23.CrossRefPubMed

Mesurado, B., & Richaud, M. C. (2017). The relationship between parental variables, empathy and prosocial-flow with prosocial behavior toward strangers, friends, and family. Journal of Happiness Studies, 18(3), 843–860. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9748-7.CrossRef

Muthén, L., & Muthén, B. (1998). Mplus user’s guide. Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén. 2017.

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2012). Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 539–569. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100452.CrossRefPubMed

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879.CrossRef

Pastorelli, C., Lansford, J. E., Luengo Kanacri, B. P., Malone, P. S., Di Giunta, L., Bacchini, D., Bombi, A. S., Zelli, A., Miranda, M. C., Bornstein, M. H., Tapanya, S., Uribe Tirado, L. M., Alampay, L. P., Al- Hassan, S. M., Chang, L., Deater-Deckard, K., Dodge, K. A., Oburu, P., Skinner, A. T., & Sorbring, E. (2016). Positive parenting and children’s prosocial behavior in eight countries. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57(7), 824–834. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12477.CrossRefPubMed

Patrick, R. B., & Gibbs, J. C. (2012). Inductive discipline, parental expression of disappointed expectations, and moral identity in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41(8), 973–983. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9698-7.CrossRefPubMed

Recchia, H. E., & Wainryb, C. (2014). Mother-child conversations about hurting others: Supporting the construction of moral agency through childhood and adolescence. In Wainryb, C. & Recchia, H. E. (Eds). Talking about right and wrong: Parent-child conversations as contexts for moral development (pp. 242–269). Cambridge University Press.

Rhoades, B. L., Greenberg, M. T., & Domitrovich, C. E. (2009). The contribution of inhibitory control to preschoolers’ social–emotional competence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30(3), 310–320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2008.12.012.CrossRef

Rothbart, M. K., Ahadi, S. A., & Hershey, K. L. (1994). Temperament and social behavior in childhood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 40(1), 21–39.

Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E. (2006). Temperament. In N. Eisenberg, W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 99–166). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Rothbart, M. K., Ahadi, S. A., Hershey, K. L., & Fisher, P. (2001). Investigations of temperament at three to seven years: The Children’s Behavior Questionnaire. Child Development, 72(5), 1394–1408. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00355.CrossRefPubMed

Rudy, D., & Halgunseth, L. C. (2005). Psychological control, maternal emotion and cognition, and child outcomes in individualist and collectivist groups. Journal of Emotional Abuse, 5(4), 237–264. https://doi.org/10.1300/J135v05n04_04.CrossRef

Sanson, A., Hemphill, S. A., Yagmurlu, B., & McClowry, S. (2011). Temperament and social development. In P. K. Smith & C. H. Hart (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of childhood social development (2nd ed., pp. 227–245). Wiley-Blackwell.

Shrout, P. E. (2011). Commentary: Mediation analysis, causal process, and cross-sectional data. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 46(5), 852–860. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2011.606718.CrossRefPubMed

Simonds, J., & Rothbart, M. K. (2004, October). The Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire (TMCQ): A computerized self-report instrument for ages 7–10 [Poster presentation]. Occasional Temperament Conference, Athens, GA.

Thompson, S. F., Lengua, L. J., Zalewski, M., & Moran, L. (2013). Income and the development of effortful control as predictors of teacher reports of preschool adjustment. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28(4), 784–793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2013.07.006.CrossRef

Tompkins, V., & Villaruel, E. (2020). Parent discipline and pre-schoolers’ social skills. Early Child Development and Care, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2020.1763978.

Valiente, C., Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S. A., Cumberland, A., & Losoya, S. H. (2004). Prediction of children’s empathy-related responding from their effortful control and parents’ expressivity. Developmental Psychology, 40(6), 911. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.40.6.911.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Williams, B. R., Ponesse, J. S., Schachar, R. J., Logan, G. D., & Tannock, R. (1999). Development of inhibitory control across the life span. Developmental Psychology, 35(1), 205–213. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.35.1.205.CrossRefPubMed

Xiao, S. X., Spinrad, T. L., & Carter, D. B. (2018). Parental emotion regulation and preschoolers’ prosocial behavior: The mediating roles of parental warmth and inductive discipline. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 179(5), 246–255. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.2018.1495611.CrossRefPubMed

Zhang, R., & Wang, Z. (2020). Inhibitory control moderates the quadratic association between resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia and prosocial behaviors in children. Psychophysiology, 57(4), e13491. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13491.CrossRefPubMed

Zhou, Q., Valiente, C., & Eisenberg, N. (2003). Empathy and its measurement. In S. J. Lopez & C. R. Snyder (Eds.), Positive psychological assessment: A handbook of models and measures (pp. 269–284). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10612-017.

Zuffianò, A., Colasante, T., Buchmann, M., & Malti, T. (2018). The codevelopment of sympathy and overt aggression from middle childhood to early adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 54, 98–110. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000417.CrossRefPubMed

Titel: Parental Discipline, Child Inhibitory Control and Prosocial Behaviors: The Indirect Relations via Child Sympathy
Auteurs: H. Melis Yavuz
Sebastian Dys
Tina Malti
Publicatiedatum: 06-01-2022
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Child and Family Studies / Uitgave 5/2022
Print ISSN: 1062-1024
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-2843
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02224-7

Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Deel dit onderdeel of sectie (kopieer de link)

Abstract

Log in om toegang te krijgen

Andere artikelen Uitgave 5/2022

Parental Psychological Control, Social Capital, Substance Use, and Driving Under the Influence among College Students: Sex Differences

What Parents and Children Say When Talking about Children’s Gratitude: A Thematic Analysis

Early emotional memories and well-being in adolescence: The roles of shame and self-critical attitudes

A Comparison of MMPI-2 Profiles Between Parental Alienation Cases and Custody Cases

Examining the Relationship between Social Support, Parenting Stress, and Depression in South Korean Single Mothers

Future Orientation among Homeschooled Adolescents in Israel