Socioeconomic determinants of parental discipline in school-aged children

Background: Abusive parental disciplinary practices compromise children’s physical and psychosocial healthy development. Therefore, exploring the determinants of these behavioural profiles is important to depict at-risk groups and provide insights to prevention strategies. Objective: To analyse the association between socioeconomic characteristics and parental disciplinary practices, used in Portuguese school-aged children. Methods: We evaluated 1666 parent–child dyads (1196 mothers and 470 fathers) of 7 years-old children as part of the follow-up of Generation XXI birth cohort (n = 8647). Parental characteristics, including socioeconomic and health features, were obtained through face-to-face interviews performed by trained interviewers using standardized questionnaires. Weight and height were measured according to standard procedures. The Conflict Tactics Scale Parent–Child version (CTSPC) was self-completed independently by mothers and fathers. Items were rated according to the original dimensions of the scale into nonviolent discipline (NVD), corporal punishment (CP), psychological aggression (PsyA) and physical assault (PA). Past-year prevalence was computed for each dimension. Associations were estimated using logistic regression [odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI)] and adjusted for parent education, child’s gender and, for mothers only, victimization before child’s birth. Results: Mothers reported 99 % of NVD, 93 % of CP, 97 % of PsyA and 7 % of PA toward their child in the previous year. In fathers, prevalence was 99 % for NVD, 88 % for CP, 96 % for PsyA and 4 % for PA. In mothers, CP was significantly associated with age (OR 0.94 95 % CI 0.90; 0.99) while PsyA was associated with both age (OR 0.91 95 % CI 0.85; 0.98) and education (OR 1.18 95 % CI 1.07; 1.29). In fathers, CP was significantly associated with family structure (OR 0.28 95 % CI 0.09; 0.84) whereas PsyA was associated with fathers’ education (OR 1.22 95 % CI 1.05; 1.42), employment status (OR 0.26 95 % CI 0.09;0.78) and smoking habits (OR = 0.36 95 % CI 0.13;0.98). No significant association were found between NVD and PA practices and parents answers. Conclusion: Younger mothers are more prone to use CP and PsyA when compared to older mothers. A positive association was also found for educational level and PsyA among mothers and fathers. Smoking and non-employed fathers tend to use less PsyA when compared with non-smoking and employed fathers, respectively. Fathers of children that do not live with both parents tend to report less CP. These findings, in the context of the Portuguese culture, are important steps to further explorations on the impact of parent–child interactions on children development.