Harsh punishment and aggressive behavior in vietnamese adolescents: The role of gender of parents and adolescents

Abstract

Recent studies have highlighted the detrimental effects of harsh punishment on psychopathology development in Vietnam, predominantly focusing on the father's role. However, there remains a gap in understanding how harsh punishment impacts children based on parental gender and child gender differences. The current study aims to address this gap by examining the influence of parental gender on harsh punishment in Vietnamese parents and assessing the association between paternal and maternal harsh punishment and aggressive behavior in boys and girls. There were a total of 1011 Vietnamese adolescents (48.2% girls and Mage = 12.9, SD = 1.16, range = 11.0 - 16.1) taking part in the study. Results suggested that fathers and mothers exhibited similar levels of harsh punishment in their parenting. Additionally, harsh paternal punishment is linked equally to aggressive behavior among boys and girls. In contrast, maternal harsh punishment is linked more to aggressive behavior in boys than to aggressive behavior in girls. The findings underscore the widespread use of harsh punishment in both Vietnamese fathers and mothers and highlight that harsh paternal punishment is more related to aggressive behavior in children compared to harsh maternal punishment.