Intergenerational Transmission of Corporal Punishment in China: the Moderating Role of Marital Satisfaction and Gender

Abstract

The goal of this study was to examine the intergenerational patterns in the transmission of parental corporal punishment in China and the moderating effects of marital satisfaction (of the second generation: G2) and gender (of three generations: G1, G2 and G3) on these patterns. Six hundred thirty-five father-mother dyads with preschool-aged children were recruited to participate in this survey. The results provided evidence of cross-generational continuity in parental corporal punishment in Chinese society and also supported the hypothesis that same-gender continuity in parental corporal punishment is stronger than cross-gender continuity. Moreover, it was found that marital satisfaction moderated the transmission of parental corporal punishment, and there were some interesting gender differences in the moderator effect. Specifically, marital satisfaction buffered the transmission of corporal punishment from grandmothers to mothers of daughters and to fathers of sons but strengthened the transmission from grandfathers to fathers of sons. The findings broaden our understanding of the factors and processes that account for both discontinuity and continuity in parental corporal punishment, particularly within the Chinese cultural context.

Child Negative Emotionality and Parental Harsh Discipline in Chinese Preschoolers: The Different Mediating Roles of Maternal and Paternal Anxiety

“…The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the corporal punishment subscale were 0.62 for father-report and 0.68 for mother-report. These alphas are consistent with those obtained in previous research (Straus et al, 1998; Fine et al, 2004; Wang et al, 2014). …”

“…Finally, it should also be noted that the variables included in the present analysis accounted for only a small amount of variance in the measure of paternal and maternal harsh discipline. This suggests that other factors not measured in the present study may contribute to risks of Chinese parental harsh discipline, such as parental parenting stress and childhood history of discipline (Wang et al, 2014; Liu and Wang, 2015). In addition, the role of genetic and biological factors in determining levels of parental harsh discipline toward children also needs to be considered in future research (DiLalla and Gottesman, 1991).…”

“…This finding suggested that paternal psychological aggression and corporal punishment may not occur in response to child evocative characteristics or may not be influenced by their own emotional state. According to previous research, paternal use of corporal punishment may be associated with other factors in parents' distal as well as proximal contexts (e.g., childhood discipline; see Wang et al, 2014). Unfortunately, the constructs assessed in our study limited us to explore this issue.…”

Multiple Levels of Family Factors and Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms Among Chinese Children

“…Chinese culture may be different from Western culture in several ways. First, under the influence of Confucian filial piety, parents in China may demand higher levels of authority and control over their children than in Western culture (Wang, Xing, & Zhao, 2014). Then, www.FamilyProcess.org 198 / FAMILY PROCESS Chinese parents tend to apply harsh parenting more frequently (Liao, Lee, Roberts-Lewis, Hong, & Jiao, 2011).…”

Gene‐environment correlations in the cross‐generational transmission of parenting: Grandparenting moderates the effect of child 5‐HTTLPR genotype on mothers' parenting

“…Such a possibility could occur if genetic variants shape the context of parental care in ways that render parents more likely to rely on parental care they themselves received as a model. Only a handful of studies have examined variables that interact with the intergenerational transmission of parenting, finding that the age at which the parents had children (Belsky, Hancox, Sligo, & Poulton, 2012), marital quality and the level of support and nurturance from the spouse toward the parent (Conger, Schofield, Neppl, & Merrick, 2013; Wang et al, 2014), and the spouse’s parenting of the child (Conger, Schofield, & Neppl, 2012) interact with the parenting received by participants in predicting their own parenting behavior. Evidence also suggests the nurturing behaviours of others in the parent’s life (Jaffee et al, 2013; Schofield et al, 2013), and the child’s gender interact with the parenting received by participants in predicting their own parenting, although these findings are mixed (see Conger et al, 2009).…”