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; Mage = 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.
Highlights
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We examined the links between parental disciplinary techniques and child inhibitory control with child prosocial behaviors.
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Parental discipline practices (induction and disappointment) were indirectly related to children’s prosocial behaviors via children’s sympathy.
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Children’s inhibitory control was related to their prosocial behaviors directly and indirectly via sympathy.
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Children’s age was a significant moderator in the associations between disappointment and sympathy as well as inhibitory control and sympathy.
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This research received support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; RGPIN-2016-06282 and PGSD-475444-2015).
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Ethics approval for the current study was received from the Research Ethics Board of the researchers’ institution (Protocol #: 30633). Families visited the research laboratory where caregivers provided written informed consent for their children’s participation, whereas children provided verbal assent. The authors thank the children and caregivers who participated, and the members of the Laboratory for Social–Emotional Development and Intervention who helped with data collection.
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Yavuz, H.M., Dys, S. & Malti, T. Parental Discipline, Child Inhibitory Control and Prosocial Behaviors: The Indirect Relations via Child Sympathy. J Child Fam Stud 31, 1276–1289 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02224-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02224-7