Parenting behaviors that shape child compliance: A multilevel meta-analysis

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Behavioral Science
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Traditional research on parent-child interactions often uses correlational studies or broad interventions, limiting the identification of specific effective parenting behaviors.
• This study addresses this gap by focusing on experimentally manipulated, discrete parenting behaviors to understand their precise impact on child compliance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and meta-analyze evidence on the effects of discrete parenting behaviors on child compliance.
• To identify specific parenting strategies that experimentally demonstrate an influence on children's compliant behavior.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature search and expert consultation were employed to identify relevant studies.
• Nineteen studies, encompassing 75 effect sizes, examined four discrete parenting behaviors: praise, verbal reprimands, time-out, and ignoring.
• Multilevel models were used to analyze the impact of each behavior on observed and parent-reported child compliance.

Main Results:

• Time-out robustly increased both observed and parent-reported child compliance (standardized mean difference [d] = 0.84–1.72).
• Briefly ignoring noncompliant behavior also significantly increased child compliance (d = 0.36–1.77).
• Verbal reprimands increased child compliance when both observed and parent-reported outcomes were combined (d = 0.72), but praise did not show a significant effect (d = -0.27–1.19).

Conclusions:

• Discrete parenting behaviors, particularly time-out and ignoring, are effective in shaping child compliance.
• Verbal reprimands show a moderate positive effect on child compliance.
• Praise, in the context of these experimental studies, did not demonstrate a significant impact on increasing child compliance.