Reciprocal Relations Between Harsh Discipline And Children's Externalizing Behavior: The Moderating Roles Of Children Friendship Satisfaction And Parental Marital Satisfaction

Many children throughout the world experience various forms of parental harsh discipline including psychological aggression,corporal punishment and severe physical abuse.Extensive studies have found that parental harsh discipline is linked with subsequent negative child outcomes,like aggressive,delinquency in western country.There is a dearth of literature examining the distinctive relations between different types of parental harsh discipline and children's externalizing behavior in China.In addition,most prior research has focused primarily on the effects of parental harsh discipline on children's externalizing problem behavior(parent-driven effects),and there is a dearth of literature examining the effects of children's problem behavior on parental harsh discipline(child-driven effects).Besides,According to Bell‘s "two-way model theory",children showed obvious talent differences since their birth,these differences would affect the behavior that parents treat to their children.Therefore,we must take ?two-way interaction theory? into account when we considering the relationships between parental harsh discipline and children's externalizing behavior The purpose of the present study is to explore the relationships between parental harsh discipline and children's externalizing problem behavior based on longitudinal study.Besides,there are few studies explored the mechanism underlying the influences of parental harsh discipline on children's externalizing problem behavior,and the studies explored the mechanism underlying the influences of children's externalizing problem behavior on parental harsh discipline bare.Hence the present study intends to investigate the relationship between parental harsh discipline and children's externalizing problem behavior and theirs moderating effects.The present study used a longitudinal design with a sample of 672 children and their parents that were recruited from two elementary schools in Jinan,Shandong Province.Participates were assessed at two points in time in an internal of a year.And the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales(CTSPC),the Child Behavior Checklist(CBCL),Marital Adjustment Test(MAT),Multidimensional Students‘ Life Satisfaction Scale(MSLSS)were respectively used to collect data.The data of parental harsh discipline,children's externalizing problem behavior,parental marital satisfaction,and children's friendship satisfaction were collected to investigate the relationship between parental harsh discipline and children's externalizing problem behavior and theirs moderating effects.The main findings of the current study were as follows:1.There were significant differences between children genders for parental harsh discipline.Specifically,boys received more parental psychological aggression,corporal punishment and severe physical abuse than girls.2.There were significant differences between genders for children's externalizing problem behavior,boys showed significant higher levels of externalizing problem behavior than girls.3.There were significant positive correlations between parental psychological aggression,corporal punishment and children's externalizing problem behavior,except T1 parental psychological aggression and T2 children's delinquency(mother reported),T2 parental severe physical abuse and T2 children's delinquency(father reported).4.Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that parental psychological aggression,corporal punishment and severe physical abuse at time 1 could positively predict children's externalizing problem behavior at time 2,and that children's externalizing problem behavior at time 1 could positively predict parental psychological aggression at time 2,could not significant predict parental corporal punishment and severe physical abuse at time 2.That is to say,there were only found parent-driven effects in the relationships between parental harsh discipline and children's externalizing problem behavior.5.Children‘s friendship satisfaction moderated the effects of parental psychological aggression,corporal punishment on children's externalizing problem behavior,and the higher levels of children's friendship satisfaction exacerbated the negative effects of parental psychological aggression,corporal punishment on children's externalizing problem behavior.However,children's friendship satisfaction did not moderated the association between parental severe physical abuse and children's externalizing problem behavior.6.Parental marital satisfaction moderated the effects of children's externalizing problem behavior on parental psychological aggression,and the higher levels of parental marital satisfaction relieved the negative effects of children's externalizing problem behavior on parental psychological aggression.However,parental marital satisfaction did not moderated the association between children's externalizing problem behavior and parental corporal punishment and the association between children's externalizing problem behavior and parental severe physical abuse.