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

Direct and indirect precursors to parents' harsh discipline responses to hy pothetical vignettes about child misbehavior were studied with data from 97 8 parents (59% mothers; 82% European American and 16% African American) of 585 kindergarten-aged children. SEM analyses showed that parents' beliefs a bout spanking and child aggression and family stress mediated a negative re lation between socioeconomic status and discipline. In turn, perception of the child and cognitive-emotional processes (hostile attributions, emotiona l upset, worry about child's future, available alternative disciplinary str ategies, and available preventive strategies) mediated the effect of stress on discipline. Similar relations between ethnicity and discipline were fou nd (African Americans reported harsher discipline), especially among low-in come parents. Societally based experiences may lead some parents to rely on accessible and coherent goals in their discipline, whereas others are more reactive.