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Cumulative Exposure to Harsh Discipline at Home and School on Child Development: Evidence From Ghana

Hang Heather Do1, Yujie Fu1, Richard Appiah2,3

  • 1Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Developmental Science
|August 19, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Harsh discipline at home negatively impacts children's academic skills, but harsh school discipline shows no effect. Combined, home and school harshness requires integrated interventions for child development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Area of Science:

  • Child Development
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Educational Psychology

Background:

  • Violence against children is a human rights violation impacting Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Harsh discipline is prevalent in homes and schools, yet longitudinal data on its effects in Sub-Saharan Africa is limited.
  • The interaction between home and school harsh discipline and its developmental consequences requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the longitudinal associations between cumulative harsh discipline at home and school and cognitive skills in young children in Ghana.
  • To explore the interaction between home and school harsh discipline exposure.
  • To inform interventions for early learning and development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study design with 663 pre-primary children (aged 5-8) in Ghana over three years.
  • Value-added design controlling for baseline outcomes.
  • Analysis of cumulative exposure to harsh discipline at home and school on academic and executive function skills.

Main Results:

  • Cumulative harsh discipline at home significantly predicted lower academic skills (β = -0.045, p < 0.05) but not executive function.
  • Cumulative harsh discipline at school did not significantly predict academic or executive function skills.
  • Harsh home discipline was negatively associated with executive function when school harsh discipline was low.

Conclusions:

  • Repeated harsh discipline at home has detrimental effects on children's academic skills.
  • Interventions addressing both home and school disciplinary practices are crucial for supporting early learning and development.
  • Contextually grounded interventions are needed to mitigate the negative impacts of harsh discipline on child development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords:
GhanaSub‐Saharan Africaacademic skillsexecutive functionharsh discipline

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