The Influence of Parental Discipline Strategies on Children's Social Competence: A Longitudinal Investigation

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Studies have consistently shown that children who experience positive social functioning in their social support networks, including peers, family members, and teachers, display strong social competence, which foretells various adjustment outcomes (Hosokawa & Katsura, 2017; Lafavor, 2018). Accumulating evidence has linked early social skills to effective social interactions, which uniquely predicts academic and career-related successes in adolescence and adulthood (Okano et al., 2019; Ren & Edwards, 2017). Similarly, existing studies have found that children who experience impaired social relationships are prone to have inadequate social competencies, contributing to school dropout, low academic achievement, and poor career-related outcomes (Lafavor, 2018; Okano et al., 2019). These efforts have identified several aspects of parental controls as determinants of social competence, including parental support and parental control strategies (Spruijit, Dekker, Ziermans & Swabb, 2018). Some other studies identified parental discipline practices as an essential role in developing social competence (Altschul et al., 2016; Creavey et al., 2018; Tompkins & Villaruel, 2020). Nevertheless, these efforts contribute to a somewhat narrow understanding of parenting processes and social competence as these efforts focused primarily on homogenous urban youth samples.

Parenting processes in disadvantaged neighborhoods has been a focus of many studies which document parenting processes and youth outcomes. Many of these studies demonstrate that physical discipline among children in urban environments is associated with adverse social outcomes as a result of these physical parenting practices. Although these studies have noted the importance of parenting process on children’s social competence development, little attention to date has explicitly focused on the diverse experiences among families in urban contexts. Thus, to expand on the existing knowledge base and improve intervention efforts to increase social capabilities in urban youth, the present study aims to investigate developmental changes between parental discipline strategies and social competence from a heterogenous urban sample followed over three years. Thus, the current study makes a unique contribution to the literature by testing the links between parental discipline strategies on social competence among youth in high-risk, diverse urban neighborhoods.

Framed from the social learning perspective, we hypothesized physical punishment would negatively predict social competence, whereas non-violent punishment will positively predict social competence in children. The data, part of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), surveyed primary caregivers and their children born in 20 large cities between 1998 and 2000. Using three waves of data, we examined a sample of n = 740 caregivers’ reports on disciplinary strategies and youth social competence when children were ages 3, 5, and 9, respectively. Cross-lagged path analysis provided evidence that non-violent discipline positively and significantly predicted social competence at each time point (βs ranged from .115 to .142). Reciprocal effects were also observed for social competence, which positively predicted physical punishment in turn (βs ranged from .065 to .036). However, physical punishment at Wave 2 only negatively predicted social competence Wave 3. The findings have implications for prevention and intervention programs aimed at developing social competence among youth in diverse urban milieus.

Authors

• Charlene Harris, State University of New York at Oswego
  Presenting Author

• Lisa Dunkley, East Tennessee State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karleah Harris, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
  Non-Presenting Author