Parental Discipline and Prosocial Behaviors: The Roles of Children's Sympathy and Age

• In Event: Parenting, family and moral development

Abstract

Prosocial behaviors—voluntary actions intended to benefit others (Eisenberg et al., 2010)—are central to positive youth development (e.g., Clark & Ladd, 2000). A central antecedent of children’s prosocial behaviors is their sympathy—feelings of concern for others’ wellbeing (Eisenberg et al., 2015; Malti et al., 2016). Sympathy is also believed to mediate the association between other factors, such as parental discipline and child temperament, and children’s prosocial behaviours (Hoffman, 2000; Hughes et al. 2000; Krevans & Gibbs, 1996). However, the roles of parental disciplinary techniques in prosocial behaviors have not been widely examined, especially in early childhood. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the role of several parental discipline practices (i.e., power assertion, love withdrawal, other-oriented induction, and disappointment) and a child temperamental characteristic (i.e., inhibitory control) in prosocial behaviors and the mediating role of sympathy. Here we examined these associations in different developmental stages from early to middle childhood years, since disciplinary practices were suggested have different influences on children at different developmental levels (Locke & Prinz, 2002). 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. Caregivers provided information about their discipline practices and their child’s prosocial behaviors, sympathy, and inhibitory control. Path analyses were conducted to examine the direct and indirect effects of parental discipline and child inhibitory control on prosocial behaviors. Results showed that other-oriented induction (B = .17, p < .01), disappointment (B = .18, p < .001), and inhibitory control (B = .34, p < .001) were directly related to sympathy, and sympathy (B = .64, p < .001), and inhibitory control (B = .16, p < .001), were directly related to prosocial behaviors (χ2(11) = 16.64, p = .12, CFI = .98, RMSEA = .04, (90% CI [.00, .08]), SRMR = .04; see Figure 1). The indirect effects of other-oriented induction (B = .11, p < .001), disappointment (B = .12, p < .001), and inhibitory control (B = .22, p < .001) on prosocial behaviour via sympathy were also significant. However, the associations between disappointment and sympathy and between inhibitory control and sympathy were qualified by a significant interaction by age group. Therefore, we run multigroup analyses to test the role of age in different paths. The results showed that disappointment was related to sympathy for 6- (B = .34, p < .001) and 8-year-olds (B = .30, p < .001), but not for 4-year-olds (B = -.01, p = .896). Moreover, inhibitory control was more strongly associated with sympathy for 4- (B = .51, p < .001) and 6- (B = .43, p < .001) year-olds as compared to 8-year-olds (B = .17, p < .05). Overall, the results suggest that parental discipline has indirect effects on prosocial behaviors via sympathy while inhibitory control has direct and indirect roles. Moreover, the study shows that parental discipline practices differentially influence child outcomes at different ages.

Authors

• Melis Hatice Yavuz-Müren, University of Toronto
  Presenting Author

• Sebastian P Dys, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tina Malti, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author