Poster #84 - Profiles of Parental Disciplinary Behaviors and its Associations with Parent-Child Relationship Bonds

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Background
The parent-child bond is characterized by the levels of care and overprotection that parents demonstrate towards their child. As parent-child bonds play an important role in development (Omer et al., 2013), it is crucial to investigate factors associated with it. Past research has found that parents’ use of aggressive disciplinary behaviors (i.e., physical punishment and psychological aggression) are negatively associated with parent-child bonds (Cai et al., 2021). Little is known about the associations between non-aggressive discipline (e.g. verbal reasoning) and parent-child bonds. Furthermore, as parents employ numerous disciplinary behaviors in response to child misbehavior (Lee et al., 2011), it is imperative to explore how simultaneous usage of different disciplinary behaviors might be associated with parent-child bonds.
Prior studies conducted in the United States have classified parents’ patterns of disciplinary behaviors into four disciplinary profiles – low discipline, low aggression, moderate physical aggression, and high physical and psychological aggression (Kim et al., 2014). However, as these disciplinary profiles were established in the United States, it is unclear whether they would be applicable to Singapore, as usage and frequency of parental disciplinary practices differ across countries (Gershoff et al., 2010). Additionally, the cultural acceptance of physical discipline (e.g. caning) in Singapore could be associated with parents’ higher usage (Ngiam & Tung, 2016), resulting in disciplinary profiles characterized by higher aggression. Therefore, it is essential to first establish Singaporean parents’ disciplinary profiles, before examining their association with parent-child bonds.

Objectives
The current research has two main objectives – i) to identify the types of parental disciplinary profiles in Singapore based on parents’ patterns of disciplinary behaviors, and ii) to examine the longitudinal association of parental disciplinary profiles in early childhood with parent-child bonds in later years.

Preregistered Hypothesis
Given the exploratory nature of the study’s first objective, no a priori hypotheses regarding the disciplinary profiles were generated. For the study’s second objective, it is hypothesized that children with parents belonging to disciplinary profiles characterized by higher parent-to-child aggression would perceive a lower amount of care and a higher amount of overprotection.

Participants
This study will utilize 399 mother-child dyads from a birth cohort study: Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (Soh et al., 2014). For the study’s second objective, a subsample of 274 participants who had data for all study variables will be included in the analysis.

Methods
Maternal reports of their own and their spouses’ disciplinary behaviors were assessed via the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire – Short Version (Table 1; Robinson et al., 2001) administered when the child was age 4.5. Children’s perceptions of their bonding with mothers and fathers were assessed via the Parental Bonding Instrument for Children (Table 1; Borelli et al., 2013) administered at age 8.5.

Preregistered Analyses
Latent class analysis will be used to categorize mothers and fathers into distinct disciplinary profiles. Following this, two separate multivariate analyses of variance, one for each parent, will be computed with the disciplinary profiles as the independent variable, and parental bonding scale scores (i.e. care and overprotection) as the dependent variables.

Authors

• Claramae Seow, Nanyang Technological University

• Mioko Sudo, Nanyang Technological University

• Helen Chen

• Lourdes Mary Daniel, KK Women's and Children's Hospital

• Peipei Setoh, Nanyang Technological University
  Presenting Author