Parental Discipline, Child Inhibitory Control and Prosocial Behaviors: The Indirect Relations via Child Sympathy

Parents’ discipline and children’s inhibitory control are important predictors of children’s prosocial behaviors. Yet few studies have examined how these factors are related across early and middle childhood. In the current study, we examined the relations between parental disciplinary techniques (i.e., power assertion, love withdrawal, other-oriented induction, and disappointment) and child inhibitory control with child prosocial behaviors. We also examined the indirect role of child sympathy in these associations and investigated these associations in early and middle childhood years to assess the moderating role of age. We collected data from the caregivers of 4-, 6- and 8-year-old children (N = 301; Mage = 6.46, SD = 1.54; 54% males) in Canada. Results revealed that other-oriented induction (i.e., reasoning aiming to make the child understand the association between their actions and another’s distress) and disappointment (i.e., showing displeasure with the child’s behavior) were indirectly related to prosocial behaviors via higher child sympathy. Children’s inhibitory control was positively associated with their prosocial behaviors directly and, for 6- and 8-year-olds, indirectly via sympathy. Parental disappointment was related to children’s sympathy for 6- and 8-year-olds, but not for 4-year-olds, while children’s inhibitory control was more strongly associated with sympathy for 4- and 6-year-olds as compared to 8-year-olds. Overall, the results show that parental discipline practices and child temperament differentially influence child prosocial outcomes at different ages.