Actor-Partner Analyses of the Associations Between Harsh Discipline and Parent-Child Relationships in China

Based on the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), this study examined the actor and partner effects of parental harsh discipline on the parent-child relationship in a sample of Chinese children. A total of 1,149 Chinese middle-school-aged children who were recruited to participate in this survey completed measures of their fathers' and mothers' psychological aggression (PA) and corporal punishment (CP) toward them and their affinitive and conflicting relationship with the father and mother. Results from the APIM analysis showed that both fathers' and mothers' harsh discipline were negatively associated with parent-child affinity and positively associated with parent-child conflict (beta s < .33, ps < .001). Furthermore, results also showed that mothers' CP was negatively related to father-child affinity (beta s = -.10, ps < .01) and mothers' CP and PA were positively related to father-child conflict (beta s < .13, ps < .01), whereas fathers' harsh discipline was not related to mother-child relationship (beta s > .04, ps > .05). Findings indicated that a parent's harsh discipline affected not only their own relationship with children but also their spouse's relationship with children. Findings in the present study highlighted the importance of decreasing both fathers' and mothers' use of harsh discipline when conducting appropriate prevention intervention to improve the parent-child relationship, especially the father-child relationship.