Parental Physical Punishment and Chinese Children's Friendship Quality: The Moderating Role of Temperamental Surgency

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective This study investigated the association between maternal and paternal physical punishment and Chinese young children's positive and negative friendship quality, and the moderation of children's temperamental surgency. Background Parenting practices are important in informing children's peer interactions. However, most literature has predominantly focused on maternal parenting, whereas the role of paternal parenting, and the unique roles of maternal and paternal parenting in child development are overlooked. Our knowledge is also limited regarding how child temperamental characteristics interact with maternal and paternal parenting in predicting developmental outcomes. Method Participants included mothers and fathers of 194 young children (45.36% female; M age = 4.99 years, SD = 1.01) and their teachers. Mothers and fathers reported their physical punishment behaviors; mothers also reported children's temperamental surgency. Teachers reported children's positive and negative friendship quality with their best friend at school. Results Maternal, paternal physical punishment, and child surgency were not directly related to children's friendship quality. However, child surgency moderated the relation between physical punishment and negative friendship quality of both parents. Physical punishment was positively related to low surgent children's negative friendship quality, albeit the association was marginally significant within the mother–child dyad. Conclusion This study signifies the importance of including parental and child characteristics in children's friendship processes, especially within the father–child dyad. Implications The results underscore the importance of developing father‐inclusive, temperament‐sensitive parenting programs and recommendations that promote nurturing parenting practices and can be tailored to children's individual characteristics.