Relationship Quality Predicting Responses for Inductive Discipline

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Moral Development

Abstract

Parental inductive discipline, which emphasizes perspective taking and a child’s responsibility for causing harm, can reduce antisocial behavior and promote prosocial behavior in children (Krevans & Gibbs, 1996; Hoffman, 2000). These associations, and children’s positive evaluations of inductive discipline, appear particularly strong in the context of warm parent-child relationships (Patrick & Gibbs, 2016). Youth responses to teachers’ use of inductive discipline may likewise depend on relationship quality, but this has not been examined. However, closer teacher-student relationships predict reduced future aggression on their own (Troop-Gordon & Kopp, 2011). Moreover, parent-child and teacher-student relationships are interrelated (Wachs et al., 2020) and good experiences in one relationship may lead youth to respond to discipline more favorably in the other. This study examined how children’s relationships with their parents and teachers predict their hypothetical responses to inductive discipline from each authority figure.
Participants were 209 middle school students (Mage=12.29 years, SD=.87; 57.9%female) and 266 high school students (Mage=15.86 years, SD=1.19; 75.6%female) from urban and suburban schools in mid-Florida. Participants were diverse (39.4% Caucasian, 37.7% Black, 10.9% Multiracial, 11.4% Latinx) and from schools mainly serving working class families. Students read a scenario in which they aggressed towards a peer and then experienced inductive discipline from a parent and a teacher (counterbalanced). Students then answered questions that measured their perceptions of the inductive statements’ acceptability and effectiveness, and their expected post-disciplinary feelings of guilt, shame, and empathy for the victim. Relationship quality was assessed using the 8-item Affiliation with Parents subscale and the 8-item Affiliation with Teachers subscale of the People in My Life Scale (PIML; Cook et al., 1995). Items were rated on a 1 (Almost Never or Never True) to 4 (Almost Always or Always True) scale and averaged within each subscale; both subscales showed good reliability (αs = 0.93, .92 respectively).
Five path models were run in Mplus 8.4 (Muthén, & Muthén, 1998-2017). In each model the teens report of their relationship with their teacher and their parent, as well as their reports of peer aggression, victimization, and demographic characteristics were used to predict their ratings of parent and teacher induction (effectiveness, acceptability, empathy, shame, and guilt; see Figure 1). Separate models were run for each type of rating.
Overall, better relationship quality was related to more positive evaluations of inductive discipline (see Table 1). However, positive teacher relationships uniquely predicted more favorable reactions to both parent and teacher inductions, whereas positive parent relationships only uniquely predicted more favorable reactions to parental induction. Moreover, consistent with distinctions between guilt and shame as adaptive versus maladaptive emotions, positive relationships were associated with more feelings of shame-free guilt but not more feelings of guilt-free shame.
These findings confirm that positive relationships with parents predict greater receptiveness to inductive discipline but extend these findings to teachers. Moreover, they emphasize the interconnection of parent-child and student-teacher relationships for impacting responses to disciplinary actions in and out of the home.

Authors

• Cassandra Emily Ellison, University of South Florida
  Presenting Author

• Wendy M Rote, University of South Florida
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jared Martin Welker, University of South Florida
  Non-Presenting Author