Combining Parenting Strategies in Discipline Encounters: Influences on Moral Internalization in Adolescence

Current research in the field of moral socialization needs to address more fully how combinations of discipline practices influence the internalization process. The present study examined young adults' retrospective reports concerning their mother's and father's disciplinary responses to remembered moral transgressions. Participants included 410 undergraduate students (Mage = 19.11 years; 79% female) who self-identified as White (74.9%), Hispanic (8.8%), Multiracial (8.8%), Black (3.2%), Asian (2.7%), and other (1.6%). Young adults provided narrative accounts of maternal and paternal responses to moral transgressions, then rated these responses in terms of their fairness and effectiveness. Discipline responses were coded for the presence of inductive discipline, mild punishment, or their combination. Results indicated that mother's use of inductive discipline with (and without) the presence of mild punishment was viewed as more appropriate than mild punishment used alone. Importantly, inductive discipline combined with mild punishment was viewed as more acceptable than (and equally effective as) inductive discipline alone. Findings for fathers were more limited, suggesting only that inductive discipline when used without mild punishment was viewed as more acceptable than mild punishment alone. Overall, mothers' use of induction with mild punishment in response to their adolescents' moral transgressions may not undermine the internalization of inductive messages and may even enhance its perceived appropriateness.