Interparental violence and children's attentional bias: The mediating effect of parental harsh discipline in China.

BACKGROUND

It is a well-established fact that experiences of interparental violence (IPV) affect children's attentional bias. However, existing research has solely investigated the relations between IPV and children's attentional bias toward either negative (ANI) or positive information (API); little research has examined the distinct associations between IPV and such two types of attentional bias simultaneously. Moreover, parental harsh discipline may mediate above associations, but few studies have investigated this issue to date.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the associations between IPV and children's attentional bias (including API and ANI) in the same model and the mediating roles of fathers' and mothers' harsh discipline-specifically, psychological aggression (PA) and corporal punishment (CP) in China.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

A total of 505 Chinese elementary school students (M = 9.82 years; 51 % girls) and their parents participated in this study.

METHODS

Participants were asked to complete paper questionnaires measuring IPV, parental harsh discipline and children's attentional bias. Structural equation models were employed to test the mediating roles of parental harsh discipline in the associations between IPV and children's attentional bias.

RESULTS

IPV was positively related to children's ANI, while was negatively related to children's API. Additionally, IPV was related to higher level of ANI through the PA of fathers but lower level of API through that of mothers. Moreover, IPV was related to higher level of API through mothers' CP.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest the linkage between IPV and children's attentional bias varies with the valence of information-positive or negative-and is differentially mediated by the harsh discipline of fathers and mothers within the Chinese cultural context.