Harsh Discipline And High School Student Problem Behaviors: The Moderating Role Of Parental Support

Harsh discipline is defined as “behavior by parents in response to, and intended to correct,perceived misbehavior by a child”(Straus and Fauchier2007). And it mainly includes corporalpunishment and psychological aggression (Straus,2011). Corporal punishment（CP）is defined asthe use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not injury, forpurposes of correction or control of the children behavior (Straus,2001). Psychological aggressionis defined as behavior by parents such as rejection and depreciation that result in injury to a childthrough verbal or symbolic action. Hash discipline is very common in family education. In America,35%of infants,94%of toddlers and over50%of12-year-old children had experienced some formsof parental corporal punishment during the previous year(Straus&Stewart,1999)，88.6%ofchildren had experienced parental psychological aggression（Straus&Field，2003）；In Japan,86%of undergraduates had experienced mild corporal punishment from their parents during childhood(Chang,2006)；In China,64.4%of parents had used corporal punishment toward their children whowere in primary school during the past six months (Xiaopei Xing，2010)；Paternal psychologicalaggression toward children had been experienced by78.9%pupils, Maternal psychologicalaggression toward children had been experienced by84.2%pupils (Li Liu，2011). Researchconclusions about characteristics of parental harsh discipline occurrence were not consistent,probably because parental harsh discipline would be affected by the macroscopic social culturalbackground and the background of immediate parent-child interaction (Gershoff,2002). In China,on one hand, people generally agree " Love well, whip well " education idea; On the other hand,The college entrance examination in our country is the necessary test before work for the students.Not only parents, but also children are under the great spiritual pressure during the high schoolstage. According to these ideas, this research hypothesized that parental corporal punishment andpsychological aggression toward high school students would have high incidence. Parental supportappears to foster children development and also limits the negative influence of parental harshdiscipline on children problem behaviors. In addition, the influence of parental support on therelationship between parental harsh discipline and children problem behaviors will be differentbecause of the gender of supportive parent. This research will study the different moderatingimpacts between paternal support and maternal support on the relationship that is between parentalharsh discipline and the high school students’ problem behavior.To address above issues,428children from one high school in Jinan, Shandong Province were included in the study, assessed in class. And the Conflict Tactics Scale of Parent-Child (CTSPC),Positive Affect Indey（PAI）and Youth Self-Report(YSR) were respectively used to collect dataabout parent corporal punishment, parent psychological aggression, parent support and studentsinternalizing or externalizing problems. The main findings of the study were as follow:129.4%of the fathers,37%of the mothers whose children were in high school adoptedcorporal punishment.65%of the fathers,72.8%of the mothers employed psychological aggression.There were more mothers who adopted harsh discipline than fathers. The frequency of paternalcorporal punishment was about2.74times during the year, about3.87times for maternal corporalpunishment. The incidence of father psychological aggression was about9.86times, the motherpsychological aggression incidence was about11.0times during the year. Fathers and mothers usedsimilar levels of corporal punishment or psychological aggression. Boys experienced paternalcorporal punishment about2.99times during the years and girls about2.52times, Boys experiencedmaternal corporal punishment about4.27times and girls about3.55times; Boys experiencedpaternal psychological aggression about10times during the years and girls about9.64times, Boysexperienced maternal psychological aggression about12.05times during the years and girls about10.11times. Boys and girls experienced similar levels of corporal punishment or psychologicalaggression from their parents.2Parental corporal punishments toward high school students occurred at the same time withparental psychological aggression. If the fathers had punished their children,96.5%of them wouldengage in psychological aggression. If the mothers had punished their children,95%of them wouldengage in psychological aggression.3Correlations between parental harsh discipline and the high school students’ problembehaviors were significant.4For high school students, father support moderated the effects of father corporal punishmenton their internalizing problems and mother corporal punishment on their internalizing problems;Mother support didn’t moderate the effects of father corporal punishment on their internalizingproblems and mother corporal punishment on their internalizing problems; Not only father supportbut also mother support didn’t moderate the effects of father corporal punishment on their externalproblems and mother corporal punishment on their externalizing problems.5For high school students, father support didn’t moderate the effects of father psychologicalaggression on students internalizing problems, but moderated the impact of mother psychologicalaggression on students internalizing problems; Mother support moderated the effects of fatherpsychological aggression on students internalizing problems and mother psychological aggressionon students internalizing problems. Not only father support but also mother support didn’t moderatethe effects of father psychological aggression on their externalizing problems and mother psychological aggression on their externalizing problems.