Abstract
This longitudinal study examined bidirectional relations between parental harsh punishment and psychoticism at the between‑ and within‑family levels in Chinese adolescents. There were 3,307 Chinese youth (43.6% girls, Mage = 11.30 years, SD = 0.24) who participated in a 4-wave longitudinal study, spaced 12 months apart. The results of cross-lagged panel modeling (i.e. CLPM) found the significant bidirectional relations between parental harsh punishment and psychoticism at the between-family level. However, the within-person level analysis of random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (i.e. RI-CLPM) only revealed parental harsh punishment significantly predicted youth psychoticism, but not vice versa. Moreover, no sex differences were observed in the bidirectional relations between parental harsh punishment and psychoticism at the between- or within-family level. These results suggest parental harsh parenting could exacerbate the psychoticism trait at both the between- and within-family level, whereas the influence of young people’s psychoticism on harsh parenting response from parents occurs only at the between-family level. The findings help to understand the nature of the dynamic process of change between psychoticism and harsh parenting among Chinese adolescents.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Notes on contributors
Li’an Wang
Xiaoli Yang is a Professor at Northwest Normal University. Her major research interests include youth development and social psychology.
Xiaoli Yang
Li’an Wang is a graduate student at Northwest Normal University. Her major research interests include youth development, school psychology and positive psychology.
Haiyan Zhao
Haiyan Zhao is a graduate student at Northwest Normal University. Her major research interests include parenting, youth development, and mental health.
Jianhua Zhou
Jianhua Zhou is a Professor at Northwest Normal University. Her major research interests include parenting, youth development and social psychology.