Do children’s disciplinary experiences change from the preschool to primary school years? A Singaporean study.

• In Event: Non-U.S., Majority World parenting

Abstract

Parental discipline begins early in infancy and continues throughout childhood, but the specific forms of discipline that children experience could change with child and contextual factors, including developing language and cognitive competencies, increased academic and social expectations, and growing need for independence (Lawrence et al., 2021; Vittrup et al., 2006). However, there has been limited research investigating longitudinal changes in both non-harsh and harsh forms of disciplinary experiences from early to middle childhood (Lansford et al, 2013). The aim of our study was to examine changes in Singaporean children’s exposure to non-harsh reasoning, verbal hostility, and physical discipline from age 4.5 to 9 years, which corresponds to before and during formal schooling. Disciplinary practices in Singapore could be influenced by an emphasis on strict discipline as an act of care (Ngiam & Tung, 2016), as well as high academic expectations (Ang et al., 2009; Frewen et al., 2015). We considered that parents’ reliance on coercive forms of discipline could increase from the preschool to primary school years with growing academic and social expectations. We also examined whether changes in disciplinary experiences differed by child gender, in consideration of previous studies suggesting that boys are subject to harsher discipline than girls (e.g., Tang, 2006). Participants were 252 children with maternal reports on disciplinary practices assessed when children were age 4.5 and 9 years in the Growing Up in Singapore towards Healthy Outcomes birth cohort study. Mothers reported on their frequency of engaging in reasoning, verbal hostility, and physical coercion with their child in the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire – Short Version (Robinson et al., 2001). A 2 (age: 4.5, 9) x 2 (child gender: girl, boy) x 3 (discipline: reasoning, verbal hostility, physical coercion) mixed ANOVA revealed a non-significant three-way interaction, but a significant age x discipline interaction (F(1.79, 447.34) = 14.14, p < .001, ηp2 = .05). Bonferroni-adjusted post-hoc tests suggested that, from age 4.5 to 9 years, the frequency of reasoning increased (p < .001), the frequency of verbal hostility did not significantly change (p = 1.00), and the frequency of physical discipline decreased (p = .002; Figure 1). Residual change in use of verbal hostility was significantly correlated with that of physical coercion (r = .49, p < .001), whereas residual change in use of reasoning was not significantly correlated with that of verbal hostility nor physical coercion (ps ≥ .43). Our findings are consistent with previous suggestions that parents’ disciplinary strategies could change according to children’s developmental competencies (i.e., language and cognitive skills), with our sample of children being exposed to less frequent complex verbal reasoning and more frequent physical coercion in early than middle childhood. Coercive forms of discipline did not increase from early to middle childhood despite potential increases in academic and social expectations. Our findings also suggest that changes in parents’ use of coercive forms of discipline may occur in tandem. Our study expands on the limited literature on longitudinal changes in disciplinary experiences, as well as on parenting practices during childhood in Singapore.

Authors

• Mioko Sudo, Nanyang Technological University
  Presenting Author

• Helen Chen

• Peipei Setoh, Nanyang Technological University