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

Abstract

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.