Changes in Disciplinary Practices During Middle Childhood: Differences Between Early and Delayed Childbearers

Empirical evidence suggests that early childbearing is a risk factor for maladaptive parenting behaviors. However, much of this research has focused on adolescent mothers' parenting practices at a single point in time, and has tended to examine parenting during infancy and toddlerhood. It is unclear how early childbearers' parenting behaviors change longitudinally and if they are significantly different than the changes in parenting behaviors exhibited by women who delay childbearing until later ages.

Using prospective data from the LONGSCAN study, this investigation focuses on two lines of inquiry: (1) Do the disciplinary practices (psychological aggression and minor assault) of early childbearers change over time (child age 4, 6, 8, and 12)? (2) Are the changes in disciplinary practices of early childbearers different than the changes in disciplinary practices displayed by delayed childbearers?

LONGSCAN data are drawn from a longitudinal study of high-risk children's health, development, and maltreatment. This study included 548 of these high-risk families recruited from four regional U.S. sites: East, Northwest, West, and South. Early childbearers (N=151) consisted of mothers who had the target child before the age of 20. Discipline domains examined in this investigation included two subscales of the Conflict Tactics Scale-Parent to Child: psychological aggression (e.g., swearing) and minor assault (e.g., spanking).

Repeated measures ANOVAs indicated that the use of psychological aggression and minor assault techniques changed significantly over time for early and delayed childbearers. For example, the number of psychological aggression techniques used decreased steadily and significantly over child ages 4, 6, and 8 (p =.000). However, there was a non-significant age by early childbearing interaction, indicating that psychological aggression did not change differentially over time between early and delayed childbearers. Likewise, the number of minor assault techniques used decreased significantly over child ages 4, 6, and 8 (p=.000), but no age by early childbearing interaction was found. This indicates that minor assault did not change differentially over time between early and delayed childbearers.

Previous research on low-risk adult samples investigating changes in parenting practices over time has indicated that the use of physical discipline tends to decrease during middle childhood and early adolescence. The current results support a decreasing trend in the use of maladaptive disciplinary techniques by delayed childbearers, as well as, early childbearers in a high-risk sample. These results may indicate that parenting interventions may be most needed in the early years of childhood during which maladaptive parenting behaviors tend to be highest.