DOI:10.6129/CJP.202212_64(4).0006
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2022, Vol.64, No.4, 541-576

Bidirectional Relationships Between Preschoolers’ Effortful Control and Maternal and Paternal Discipline Styles in a Short-Term Longitudinal Study

Kung-Yu Hsu(Department of Psychology, National Chung-Cheng University), Mei-Juan Kung(Department of Early Childhood Educare, Ching Kuo Institute of Management and Health), Miao-Hui Lin(Department of Early Childhood Education, National Tainan University)

Abstract

The relationships between preschoolers’ effortful control and parental discipline styles were examined in a three- wave (one year apart) longitudinal study when preschoolers were at about 3 years olds (T1 n = 266; T2, n = 219; T3, n = 163). These preschoolers were assessed by his/her mothers (T1, n = 245; T2, n = 200; T3, n = 144) and father (T1, n = 163; T2, n = 130; T3 n = 97) on the scales of effortful control from Children’s Behavior Questionnaire and these parents also reported his/her authoritative and authoritarian disciplines via Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire at these three waves. The bidirectional relationships between preschoolers’ effortful control and mothers’ and fathers’ discipline styles were analyzed in the framework of cross-lagged panel model. Six models were set and analyzed in structural equation model. Results shows that autoregressive consistencies of preschoolers’ effortful control and parent’s authoritative and authoritarian disciplines were high. The impacts of maternal disciplines on preschoolers’ effortful control were different from patental disciplines. Maternal authoritative style at first year had a positive impact on preschoolers’ effortful control at second year and preschoolers’ effortful control at first year also had a positive impact on maternal authoritative style at second year. The same influence patterns also appeared from second to third year. Maternal authoritarian discipline at the first year had a negative impact on the preschoolers’ effortful control at second yer, then preschoolers’ effortful control at the second year had a negative impact o mother’s authoritarian discipline at the third year. On the other hand, paternal authoritative styles at the first year had sustantive impact on preschoolers’ effortful control, but not vice versa. Then preschoolers’ effortful control at second year had an impact on paternal disciplines at third year, but not vice versa. Paternal authoritarian styles at the first and second year had negative but nonsignificant impact on preschoolers’ effortful control at second and third year, but not vice versa. The results were discussed from the perspective of Chinese culture and family context.

Keywords: authoritarian discipline, authoritative discipline, effortful control, maternal style, paternal styles