Changes in coercive parenting and child externalizing behavior across COVID-19 and the moderating role of parent-child attachment relationship quality.

Research indicates increases in coercive parenting towards children and increases in child externalizing behavior during COVID-19 as compared to the pre-pandemic period. In this preregistered study, we extended previous knowledge by investigating to what extent, and under what conditions, changes in coercive parenting and child externalizing behavior are interrelated. Ninety-five mothers and fathers of children (of age 3 prior to the pandemic) reported on coercive parenting and child externalizing behavior before and during the pandemic, and trained assistants observed the quality of mother-child and father-child attachment relationship prior to the pandemic. We employed latent change score modeling to test the extent to which changes in maternal and paternal coercive parenting and changes in child externalizing behavior across the pre-pandemic period and the onset of the first COVID-19 lockdown are interrelated. Moreover, we tested whether these linkages are moderated by changes in the other parent's coercive parenting and the quality of parent-child attachment relationship. Specifically, we tested the moderation by mother-child (father-child) attachment relationship quality in the relation between changes in mothers' (fathers') coercive parenting and changes in child externalizing behavior. We found that changes in mothers', but not fathers' coercive parenting were positively associated with changes in child externalizing behavior. We found no moderation by changes in the other parent's parenting or by parent-child attachment relationship quality. Our findings provide support for the transactional processes underlying mothers' and children's behavior in the context of non-normative stressful conditions. We recommend incorporating evidence-based (parenting) support for mothers, fathers, and young children in prevention strategies and recovery tools employed during and after future lockdowns and non-normative stressful events.

The relation between harsh parenting and bullying involvement and the moderating role of child inhibitory control: A population-based study.

Harsh parenting has been linked to children's bullying involvement in three distinct roles: perpetrators, targets (of bullying), and perpetrator-targets. To understand how the same parenting behavior is associated with three different types of bulling involvement, we examined the moderating roles of children's inhibitory control and sex. In addition, we differentiated between mothers' and fathers' harsh parenting. We analyzed multi-informant questionnaire data from 2131 families participating in the Dutch Generation R birth cohort study. When children were three years old, parents reported on their own harsh parenting practices. When children were four, mothers reported on their children's inhibitory control. At child age six, teachers reported on children's bullying involvement. Our results revealed that fathers', and not mothers', harsh parenting increased the odds of being a perpetrator. No moderation effects with children's inhibitory control and sex were found for the likelihood of being a perpetrator. Moderation effects were present for the likelihood of being a target and a perpetrator-target, albeit only with mothers' harsh parenting. Specifically, for boys with lower-level inhibitory control problems, mothers' harsh parenting increased the odds of being a target. In contrast, for boys with higher-level inhibitory control problems, mothers' harsh parenting decreased the odds of being a target. Furthermore, for girls with higher-level inhibitory control problems, mothers' harsh parenting increased the odds of being a perpetrator-target. Overall, our results underscore the importance of differentiating by children's cognitive skills and by parent and child sex to fully understand how harsh parenting and bullying involvement are related.