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A longitudinal examination of mothers’ and fathers’ social information processing biases and harsh discipline in nine countries
Psychology Department Faculty Publications
  • Jennifer E Lansford, Duke University
  • Darren Woodlief
  • Patrick S Malone, University of South Carolina
  • Paul Oburu, Maseno University
  • Concetta Pastorelli, University of Rome La Sapienza
  • Ann T Skinner, Duke University
  • Emma Sorbring, University West
  • Sombat Tapanya, Chiang Mai University
  • Liliana Maria Uribe Tirado, Universidad San Buenaventura
  • Arnaldo Zelli, University of Rome
  • Suha M Al-Hassan, Hashemite University
  • Liane Peña Alampay, Ateneo de Manila University
  • Dario Bacchini, Second University of Naples
  • Anna Silvia Bombi, University of Rome La Sapienza
  • Marc H Bornstein, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
  • Lei Chang
  • Kirby Deater-Deckard
  • Laura Di Giunta, University of Rome La Sapienza
  • Kenneth A Dodge, Duke University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-1-2014
Disciplines
Abstract

This study examined whether parents’ social information processing was related to their subsequent reports of their harsh discipline. Interviews were conducted with mothers (n = 1,277) and fathers (n = 1,030) of children in 1,297 families in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States), initially when children were 7 to 9 years old and again 1 year later. Structural equation models showed that parents’ positive evaluations of aggressive responses to hypothetical childrearing vignettes at Time 1 predicted parents’ self-reported harsh physical and nonphysical discipline at Time 2. This link was consistent across mothers and fathers, and across the nine countries, providing support for the universality of the link between positive evaluations of harsh discipline and parents’ aggressive behavior toward children. The results suggest that international efforts to eliminate violence toward children could target parents’ beliefs about the acceptability and advisability of using harsh physical and nonphysical forms of discipline.

Citation Information
Lansford, J., Woodlief, D., Malone, P., Oburu, P., Pastorelli, C., Skinner, A., . . . Dodge, K. (2014). A longitudinal examination of mothers’ and fathers’ social information processing biases and harsh discipline in nine countries. Development and Psychopathology, 26(3), 561-573. doi:10.1017/S0954579414000236