issues in Need of Initial Visitation: Race and Nation Specificity in the Study of Externalizing Behavior Problems and Discipline

Discipline responses: Influences of parents' socioeconomic status, ethnicity, beliefs about parenting, stress, and cognitive-emotional processes.

“…In its explicit focus on physical and severe punishment, this study examined only one aspect of discipline: certain power-assertive strategies. Parents routinely use other disciplinary strategies—power assertive (e.g., time-out) and non–power assertive (e.g., reasoning)—in the service of preparing children to function effectively as adults (e.g., Baumrind, 1997; Jackson, 1997; Lytton, 1997). As a group, discipline strategies may vary in the degree to which they draw on reactive or deliberative processes.…”

“…Inclusion of beliefs about the merit of other discipline responses (e.g., withdrawal of privileges and time-out) and parents' general preference for certain discipline responses would broaden understanding of relations among constructs in this model. Because African American parents tend not to equate severity of discipline with physical discipline (Jackson, 1997), beliefs about the use of severe discipline responses warrant examination as well. Parenting beliefs also could be more comprehensively assessed with the inclusion of beliefs about positive interactions with children such as praise, nurturance, supportive parenting (e.g., Pettit et al, 1997), and management of negative affect, which are important elements of parenting that may relate to discipline responses.…”

Maternal control and sensitivity, child gender, and maternal education in relation to children's behavioral outcomes in African American families

“…Although there is general consensus that maternal sensitivity is beneficial to children of different ethnic and racial backgrounds, controversy exists with respect to the effects of maternal control (e.g., Deater-Deckard, Dodge, & Bates, 1996; McLoyd, 2000; Pettit, Bates, & Dodge, 1997). A number of researchers have argued that high control is a common socialization strategy in African American mothers that may yield benefits for children (Deater-Deckard & Dodge, 1997; Dodge, Pettit, & Bates, 1994; Jackson, 1997). Some studies, however, confound African American parenting with variables such as socioeconomic status and education, which themselves might account for between- and within-group variation in parenting.…”

Ethnic differences in the link between physical discipline and later adolescent externalizing behaviors

“…However, recent debate in the literature about the role of physical discipline in different cultural contexts and its effects on children's development (Deater-Deckard & Jackson, 1997) raises the question of whether these conclusions are appropriate for populations other than White, middle-class Americans. Using a representative community sample, Deater-Deckard, Dodge, Bates, and Pettit (1996) found that the experience of physical discipline in the first five years of life was associated with higher levels of teacher-and peer-reported externalizing behavior problems for European American children and with higher levels of mother-reported externalizing behavior problems for European American and African American children when they were in kindergarten through third grade.…”