Aggressive and non-aggressive parental discipline: Longitudinal associations with children's peer problems

This longitudinal study investigated whether aggressive and non-aggressive parental discipline methods are differentially associated with children's peer-related difficulties and whether emotion dysregulation may mediate these relations. When children (N = 16,708; 51.1 % boys) were 3, 5, and 7 years old, parents reported parental discipline and children's emotion dysregulation and peer problems. The results demonstrated that aggressive and non-aggressive discipline methods differentially predicted children's peer problems and supported the mediation of children's emotion dysregulation (β_ind = 0.004 to 0.012). Moreover, reasoning was the only method that positively predicted emotion regulation (β = − 0.07, p < .01), and a balanced disciplinary approach may support children's peer relationships through its relation to emotion dysregulation (βind = − 0.01). The findings offer a nuanced understanding on the relation between parental discipline and child development and highlight emotional regulation as a mechanism underlying these relations in early childhood.