Child-upbringing and family stability in blended households

Table of contents

Abstract

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Problem of Statement
Objectives of the Study
Research Questions
Justification of the Study
Significance of the Study
Scope and Delimitation of the Study
Limitation of the Study
Conceptual Framework
Operational Definitions of Key Terms And Concepts

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
Critical Review of Relevant Theories
Bowen family systems theory
Cinderella effect
Review of Empirical Studies
Modes of discipline and family stability in blended households
Provision of basic needs and family stability
The mode of interaction between family members andfamily stability
Conflict management mechanisms and family stability
Summary

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
Introduction
Research Design
Site description, study population and target population
The Target Population
Sample and sampling techniques
Sample size
Description of instruments and methods for data collection
Methods of data Collection
Data collection procedures
Reliability and validity of Research instruments
Reliability
Validity
Data Analysis procedures
Ethical considerations

CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATIONS OF FINDINGS
Introduction
Demographic Information
Demographic characteristics
Mode of discipline and its effect on the relationship between parents
The provision of the basic needs and family stability
Basic needs provide for children
Responsibilty of provision of basic needs
Rating the provision of the needs across the children
Provision of basic needs influence on family stability
Mode of Interaction Between Family Members and Its Effect on Family Stability
Time spent with stepparent /stepchildren
Stepparent’s /step-children’s attitudes towards each other
Parties that interact most with the children
Effect of interactions between family members on family stability
Conflict management mechanisms and family stability
Types of conflict in blended families
Conflicting persons in blended families
Conflict managed mechanisms
Chapter summary

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
To find out how the modes of discipline affect family stability
How the provision of basic needs affects family stability
How the mode of interaction between family members affects family stability
How the conflict management mechanisms affect family stability
Conclusion
Recommendations
Recommendations for blended household members
Recommendations for further research

REFERENCES

Abstract

Child-upbringing in blended households has the potential to be remarkably complicated compared to traditional families. Important factors contributing to this complexity in blended households is the conflicting emotions, challenges of acceptance, rejection, ambiguity of identity, and poor parent -child relationships. Therefore, there is a need to question whether family stability could be affected by the way children are raised in blended households. For the purpose of answering whether child-upbringing impacts on family stability in blended households, the research was conducted as a qualitative study. The effects of child-upbringing on family stability were investigated by using interviews guides generated from research questions. Structured interviews were conducted by using video calling, audio recordings, as well as notes taking. The total sample size comprised of 40 respondents from parents and children living in blended households. The data was analyzed using content analysis, the information was organized into themes. The findings indicated that child upbringing in blended households does indeed affect family stability. However, to mitigate the negative influence of child upbringing, this study recommended that there should be policies and programs that deals with blended households issues. Additionally, all parties involved in blended households should adopt good communication skills, they should build a loving, peaceful and healthy parent –child relationships, they should love and respect each other so that they can live in harmony .Children should have a loving and a peaceful place they can call home.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

In this chapter the following will be discussed; the background to the study, the statement of the problem and the objectives of the research study. The research questions, research assumptions, the justification of the study and the significance of the study will also be discussed under this. The scope and delimitation of the study, limitations in the study, the conceptual framework and finally the operational definition of terminologies used will also be looked at under this section.

Background of the Study

Child upbringing can be defined as a process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. It entails providing education, shelter, nourishment, and protection (Capetta, 2013). Hence, it is the duty of parents to bring up their children in an atmosphere of peace, encouraging confidence and in an environment free from threat and abuse. Parents are also expected to support learning, teach social skills and help spiritual development, as well as creating ethical value systems with social norms that contribute to the child’s beliefs, culture and customs (Bulus, 2013). For this reason, the way a child is raised makes a huge impact on the family stability (Carlson, 2012). In this, looking family stability can be referred to the consistency of activities and routines (Walters, 2014).

Studies have shown that in families where children are given constant attention, parental guidance, discipline, care and support, children are able to live responsibly and contribute to the development of their families (Agulana,2011). On the contrary, in families where children are not given parental support, adequate discipline, guidance and constant attention, they often develop into various life related problems such as alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and sexual risk behaviors among others. As a result, parents normally blame each other for their children’s behaviuors which more often than not lead to anger, resentment, separation or divorce (Robert, 2016). Thus, this study will examine child upbringing and family stability in blended households also known as step-families, or reconstituted families of Gihosha commune, Bujumbura Burundi. In the most basic sense, a blended household refers to a household or family where the parents have children from previous relationships but all the members come together as one unit (Kerrie, 2012).

Across the world, the proportion of children living with blended household has increased dramatically due to high rates of divorce, remarriages, single parenthood, cohabitation among other factors (Coleman, 2012). It is estimated that more than 2.3 billion households are blended households (Kramer, 2009). Blended households are created through remarriage or repartnering, after there is a divorce, death, or abandonment, are described as blended families. They consist of a parent, a step-parent, any children brought into the family by either party, or any subsequent children. Usually, by their nature, these families have difficulty with boundaries, which could lead to a stressful life for everyone involved (Carlson &Robey, 2011). There are additional stresses that parents and step-parents must work through as they initiate a new life together, which traditional marriages may not face. Parents have issues of raising the children, which may lead to problems in the family (Amato, 2000).

Research continues to suggest that children raised in blended households face a number of special challenges because children must learn new household rules and routines, build new relationships with new siblings and their new stepparents. Blended households have a high rate of physical and sexual abuse which lead to blended households break ups and divorce (McLanahan, 2002).Winnitcott (2009) argued that child upbringing in blended households is more problematic than in nuclear families, thus is boud to affect family stability. Indeed, The World report on Violence Against Children postulates that as many as 500 million stepchildren around the globe are subjected to abuse and neglect by their step-parents and this results to affecting family stability (Ford, 2012). Hence, Family stability in blended households is a global social concern.

In Africa, there is an increase in blended households due to rising incidences of divorce, single parenthood, and other changing family patterns ( Jakob, 2006). Some Studies have shown that children raised in blended households in Africa are hundred times likely to be abused and molested by step-parents than in nuclear families because parents tend to be less tolerant and less receptive to interactions with those children (Cromdal, 2012). Furthermore, Children in blended households significantly receive lower levels of parental investment, they lack a support system and have a little idea of a positive parenting .As a result ,the blended households family often functions poorly,thus leads to family instability ( Josh, 2008). However,Vinick (2010) found that few children raised in blended households in Africa were doing well in life. In South Sudan, Anhyer (2006) observed that female step-children were at high risk of physical and sexual assault by their step-fathers, this may lead to suicide, emotional and behavioural problems. In Namibia, Runda (2011) found that stepchildren go through discriminatory treatment within the home in terms of access to food, affection and unequal burden of household labour which often lead to family instability because the kind of care and attention children receive from their parents affect family stability either negatively or positively (Hetherington,1992). Child-upbringing in blended households has aroused anger, suicide, mistrust and anxiety (Turman, 2001). This is because in a blended family, love has to be nurtured, tested and re-tested. The transition from a nuclear family or a single-parent family to a blended family involves a reorganization of family roles, rules, duties and responsibilities (Papernow, 1999). For example, there is no clear formal parenting roles, rights and responsibilities that exist between stepparents and stepchildren, thus often leads to unexpected conflicts (Stewart, 2007). Parents and children in blended households are more distant and have more conflicts and negative interactions than those in nuclear families (Brooke, 2011).

In Burundi, family stability has been affected by civil wars and political instability. A significant number of family networks have been torn apart (World Report, 2015). However, there is lack of data on the effect of child upbringing on family stability in blended households and therefore, this study was very important as it sought to make contributions to the body of knowledge in Burundi by investigating the child upbringing and family stability in blended households .

Problem of Statement

Children raised in stable nuclear families with two biological parents present are loved, cared for and protected (Coleman, 2001). However, due to high increase of divorce, remarriages and singleparenthood, children are being raised in blended households ( Valerie, 2011). Thus, disagreements over issues on how a child or children from pervious relationships should be raised may arise between biological and a step parents, thereby causing instability in the family (Karen, 2006).

With more children being raised in blended households it is commonplace that parents are boiund to have different opinions on how children should be raised (Santrock, 2000). An important concern is that nobody knows how child upbringing is affecting family stability in blended households. This study therefore, sought to address this gap in the existing body of knowledge on child upbringing and family stability in blended households focusing on Burundi.

Objectives of the Study

The general objective of the study was to find out the effects of child upbringing on family stability in blended households.

Specific objectives are:

1.To find out how the various modes of discipline affect family stability in blended households in Gihosha, Bujumbura, Burundi.
2.To investigate how the provision of the basic needs affect family stability in blended households in Gihosha, Bujumbura, Burundi.
3.To examine how the modes of interaction between family members affect family stability in blended households in Gihosha, Bujumbura, Burundi.
4.To explore how conflict management mechanisms affect family stability in blended households in Gihosha, Bujumbura, Burundi.

Research Questions

The study adopted the following research questions to equally guide the study;

1. How do the modes of discipline affect family stability in blended families in Gihosha, Bujumbura, Burundi?
2. To what extent does the provision of the basic needs affect family stability in blended families in Gihosha, Bujumbura, Burundi?
3. How does the mode of interaction between family members affect family stability in blended households in Gihosha, Bujumbura, Burundi?
4. Why do conflict management mechanisms affect family stability in blended households in Gihosha, Bujumbura, Burundi?

Justification of the Study

Families have long been recognized as a building block of society, thus, the stability of the community depends on the stability of the families (Corbett, 2004). Hence a good child upbringing is important to family stability because lessons and principles learnt from parents will result in a stable family as well as stable society (John, 1997). However, child upbringing has become an issue in the contemporary society. Some parents have neglected this basic responsibility thereby exposing their children to danger and blighting their future.

The effect of child upbringing on family stability in blended households is seldom addressed in the normal routines of policy and program development. This study therefore, sought to create more awareness on the impact of child upbringing on family stability in blended households in order to strengthen interactions between children and parents in blended households as well as contribute to the existing body of knowledge dedicated to breaking the cycle of family breakdown across generations. The more we learn about blended households, the better we can understand the needs of children and offer support to stepparents in the child’s upbringing in order to improve family stability. Additionally, there is a limited research that has been done to understand the effects of the child upbringing in blended families focusing on Burundi. Therefore, lack of data has awaken the researcher a deep concern for this research in Burundi.

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study are of a great importance having both theoretical and practical value. The theoretical value lies in the fact that it made important contributions to the limited body of knowledge on the effect of child upbringing on family stability in blended households in Bujumbura, Burundi. It also provided Burundians with local knowledge. The practical value of this study lay in the fact that it would serve as a foundation for the law makers to introduce a blended family Law that guide the interactions between blended households members because blended households face unique challenges that need a unique attention. The findings might also help the government, religious and non-government agencies to encourage high quality child-upbringing to avoid problems associated with a poor upbringing such as family instability. To counselors, psychologist and social workers, the findings will provide an understanding of the blended households operations and behavioural patterns to help parents and children cope better with the negative attitudes within the family . Lastly, the findings may motivate other researchers from Burundi to undertake future research in this area in other towns.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

Child upbringing is the building block of family stability and stable society. Proper guidance helps a child to grow, develop and respond to life in a positive way. However, studies suggest that 60 to 70 percent of marriages involving children from previous marriage fail.

This study was conducted in Gihosha, Bujumbura, Burundi. Gihosha is one of the capital city communes. Hence,the capital city is Bujumbura, the largest city and main port of Burundi. It ships most of the country’s chief export coffee,tea and cotton. It is on the North Eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika.

Limitation of the Study

Although this research was carefully prepared for, there were still unavoidable limitations and shortcomings. Lack of prior research on the topic in Bujumbura, Burundi was a significant obstacle that made data collection rather challenging in terms of the time, distance and financial constraints which may have affected the researcher to gather appropriate information on findings to the study. This challenge was overcome by the use of research assistants who worked in various parts of the study area to collect the data thus surmounting all these challenges. Finally, a great challenge is that Burundi is a Francophone nation therefore translating English to French and French to English was difficult since some information might be lost from original meaning in the process of translating. However, the researcher was bilingual and had no challenge in deciphering the meanings from French to English

Family stability in blended households is new and relatively unstudied in Burundi, this means that the researcher had scanty research material from Burundi on which to draw as a resource or a reference. Without disaggregated data sets conclusions drawn from this study may have limitation on generalizations. The researcher however elected to use other literature in other studies to compensate for this shortfall. Respondents might have also given the researcher the information she wanted to hear in order to please her. Therefore, it might affect the validity of the findings. The researcher and her team were patient enough to select days for the interviews that the participants felt were most convenient.

Conceptual Framework

The following is a diagrammatic illustration of the conceptual framework. It depicts the relationship between the independent variable, dependent variable and the intervening variable.

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Table 1:1: Conceptual Framework

The above conceptual framework illustrates the link between child upbringing and family stability. According to Gatara (2010), an independent variable is a factor that determines the phenomenon we wish to explain while the independent variable represents the phenomenon to be explained. The independent variable for the study was child upbringing. Its indicators were discipline, basic provision of needs, interactions, conflict management. The dependent variables are family stability. Its indicators are hierarchy ,respect, clear roles, social connectedness. The intervening variables for the study will be mass media, work, religion, age, peer pressure.

Operational Definitions of Key Terms And Concepts

Child upbringing: This is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood.

Family Stability: This is the consistency of family activities and routines.

Blended households: These are households consisting of a couple, the children they have had together, and their children from previous relationships

Discipline: This is the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience

Conflict: This is a disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one.

Step-siblings: These are offsprings of one's stepfatheror stepmother who is not of one's mother and is not the offspring of one's father.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

This chapter reviews the existing and available literature on the child upbringing and family stability in blended households. According to Mouton (2008), the importance of the literature review is to learn how other scholars have theories and conceptualized issues around the research problem under the study. The knowledge gained would help better understand the research on child upbringing and family stability in blended households a case of Gihosha commune, Bujumbura province , Burundi.

Critical Review of Relevant Theories

In this section of our literature review, there are many theories that are critical that could guide this proposal. Due to limitations already highlighted previously the study used three of them which were relevant to this research. They are functionalist, Cinderella and family stress theory.

Bowen family systems theory

Bowen family systems (1913–90) ,is a theory of human behavior that views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems thinking to describe the complex interactions in the unit. It is the nature of a family that its members are intensely connected emotionally. Often people feel distant or disconnected from their families, but this is more feeling than fact. Families so profoundly affect their members’ thoughts, feelings, and actions that it often seems as if people are living under the same “emotional skin.” People solicit each other’s attention, approval, and support and react to each other’s needs, expectations, and upsets. The connectedness and reactivity make the functioning of family members interdependent. A change in one person’s functioning is predictably followed by reciprocal changes in the functioning of others. Families differ somewhat in the degree of interdependence, but it is always present to some degree.

The emotional interdependence presumably evolved to promote the cohesiveness and cooperation families require to protect, shelter, and feed their members. Heightened tension, however, can intensify these processes that promote unity and teamwork, and this can lead to problems. When family members get anxious, the anxiety can escalate by spreading infectiously among them. As anxiety goes up, the emotional connectedness of family members becomes more stressful than comforting. Eventually, one or more members feels overwhelmed, isolated, or out of control. These are the people who accommodate the most to reduce tension in others. It is a reciprocal interaction. For example, a person takes too much responsibility for the distress of others in relationship to their unrealistic expectations of him, or a person gives up too much control of his thinking and decision-making in relationship to others anxiously telling him what to do. The one who does the most accommodating literally “absorbs” system anxiety and thus is the family member most vulnerable to problems such as depression, alcoholism, affairs, or physical illness.

Dr. Murray Bowen, a psychiatrist, originated this theory and its eight interlocking concepts. He formulated the theory by using systems thinking to integrate knowledge of the human species as a product of evolution with knowledge from family research. A core assumption is that an emotional system that evolved over several billion years governs human relationship systems. People have a “thinking brain,” language, a complex psychology and culture, but people still do all the ordinary things other forms of life do. The emotional system affects most human activity and is the principal driving force in the development of clinical problems. Knowledge of how the emotional system operates in one’s family, work, and social systems reveals new and more effective options for solving problems in each of these areas

Cinderella effect

The Cinderella effect was first summarized in the early 1970s by P. D. Scott, a forensic psychologist who made a shocking observation about a small sample cases in which a child was killed out of anger: 52 percent of them were committed by the child’s step-father. Further evidence compiled from official reports of child abuse cases and homicides, clinical data, and victim reports showed that non-biologically related parents are up to 100 times more likely to be abusive than biological parents. A stepfamily parenting style came to be.The strongest evidence supporting the Cinderella effect appears in households with both genetic and stepchildren. In two separate surveys of abuse cases, parents in such households exclusively targeted their stepchildren with abusive behavior: 90 percent in one survey, 86 percent in the other. Studies have also suggested that stepparents are less likely to display positive behaviors toward their children than biological parents, including investing time in those children’s education and do have a different and defining stepfamily parenting style.

Martin Daly and Margo Wilson, evolutionary psychologists, suggest and evolutionary basis for the Cinderella effect. Citing the evolutionary theory of inclusive fitness and parental investment theory. They expect parents to discriminate in favor of their genetic children and invest less time in children in their care that aren’t biologically related as a means of insuring their genetics are passed on to future generations. There seems to be biological basis for thestepfamily parenting style. Parallels exist in the animal kingdom. Daly and Wilson cited lions in their famous example. Adult male lions entering a pride have been known to kill cubs fathered by other males. This serves two purposes: they guarantee more of the pride’s limited available attention for their own cubs and speed up the timeline for female fertility. This phenomenon is a bit more complicated in humans and may be an extension of mating behavior. Since humans risk losing their partners by refusing to tolerate children unrelated to them but related to those partners, they invest the minimum time and resources necessary to meet their partner’s expectations. This explains the tendency of abusers to spare their biological children and have a different stepfamily parenting style. Stepchild to stepparent relationships is also strained: children are less likely to approach their stepfathers for advice and support than their genetic father.

Studies from large child abuse data bases such as those analyzed by Daly & Wilson (1981) and Creighton & Noyes (1989). Both studies included large numbers of stepmother cases and provided evidence that rates of physical abuse in stepmother and stepfather households are roughly similar and far in excess of those in two-genetic-parent households. Stepmothers are also substantially and significantly more likely to kill young children than genetic mothers according to the analyses of U.S. data by Weekes-Shackelford & Shackelford (2004), despite the facts that as with stepfathers, the code “stepmother” was restricted to those in registered marriages, and the genetic mother cases included neonaticides, a distinct category of homicide that is sometimes quite numerous. We have already mentioned the identical abuse rates in stepmother and stepfather households in the Korean study by Kim &Ko (1990). Finally, stepmother households tend to be even more extremely over-represented than stepfather households among adolescent runaways who aver that they are fleeing abusive families.

In relation to child upbringing and family stability in blended households, the negative effects associated with stepparents due to the reduced quantity and quality of investments children receive within stepfather households affect family stability

Review of Empirical Studies

Modes of discipline and family stability in blended households

Discipline can be a huge issue in blended households, this is because the very fact that blended households exist suggests that something negative, a death, divorce or separation has happened, and that is sure to affect children’s behavior (Ricochet, 2017). Discipline in a traditional family is tough, but in blended households step-parents face even greater challenges, thus affect the family stability. Family psychologist Patricia (2016) reported that stepkids are constantly testing the boundaries of the new family dynamic and are likely to push some buttons. This may be because stepfathers are apparently less involved with discipline and control but more involved in positive social behavior with children than fathers in intact families" (Blais & Tessier, 1990). A study by Clingempeel, Brand & Levoli (1984) that was purposed to assess the step-parent/step-child relationship in stepmother and stepfather families revealed that for 9 to 12 year-old families were more problematic than step-parent-stepson relationships. Important differences between a parent-child relationship and a step-parent to stepchild relationship involve discipline and affection. Step-parents tend to exert less control over and are less toward their stepchildren than are biological parents with their children warm (Amato, 1987; Hetherington & Clingempeel, 1992). Fine and Kurdek (1994) examined differences in parenting cognitions between fathers and stepfathers and between mothers and stepmothers and found that they “have differing ‘parenting scripts’ regarding how often they themselves should, and how often typical parents do, express warmth and control.

Many blended families run into issues when it comes to different discipline styles. One parent may be lenient, while the other one is very strict. For example, the husband may be flexible when it comes to his kids' curfews, and the mother imposes a non-negotiable 11 PM curfews on weekend evenings. With younger children, the discipline issue can be even more of a challenge. One parent may believe in time outs, while the other thinks that spanking is the best punishment. When one of the parents is out of the home, the other one is in charge, so when discipline styles don't mesh, the children may suffer from parental inconsistency (Kirrie ,2012).

Parenting practices play a fundamental role in children's upbringing. Corporal disciplining practices have consistently been associated with adverse mental health outcomes, such as poor school achievements, behavioural problems, lowered self-esteem and delinquent behaviors. Milder forms of negative parental disciplining strategies like harsh discipline- have also been studied repeatedly. Harsh discipline is characterized by parental attempts to control a child using verbal violence (shouting) or physical forms of punishment (pinching or hitting). These forms of parental disciplining practices have been associated not only with child behavioral problems, in line with a cycle of violence hypothesis, but also with child emotional problems. The effects of these milder forms of unsympathetic disciplining may be less pronounced, yet are important since the prevalence of these forms of parental discipline is high. In a study using data from the this cohort, it was demonstrated that no less than 77 per cent of mothers and 67 per cent of fathers shouted at their child at least once in two weeks, in addition the number of parents threatening to slap (20 to 24 per cent) or angrily pinching the child's arm (15 per cent) was also considerable Given the high prevalence and the known burden for children it is important to examine the consequences of these milder forms of harsh parental disciplining accurately( Yorgburg, 1973). As child, behaviour problems like aggressive or oppositional tendencies may lead to higher levels of harsh discipline by parents. It is therefore important to study the effects of harsh parental disciplining on child problem-behaviours prospectively. A number of longitudinal studies have affirmed that after controlling for baseline emotional and behavioral problems, children exposed to less extreme forms of parental harsh discipline have an increased risk of behavioral problems and psychiatric disorders later in life (Russell, 1972).

Consistent discipline has been associated with family stability. Consistent discipline also buffers adolescents against the effects of a variety of stressful and negative events (Richardson, 2016). For instance, researchers found that consistent discipline buffered the effects of peer group affiliation on girls’ alcohol use, but not among boys. These authors suggest that adolescents who experience high levels of consistent discipline are more resilient to peer influence because the imposition of parental norms and values discourages adolescents from subscribing to the values of their drug-use promoting peers. Furthermore, inconsistent parental disciplinary behaviours may even inadvertently reinforce adolescents’ conduct problems (Richard, 1973).

Adolescents’ aggressive and noncompliant behaviour is reinforced when parents engage in an inconsistent discipline practice whereby the parent makes a request, the adolescent responds negatively, and the parent backs down (Douvan, 1971). Numerous researchers found associations between higher levels of inconsistent discipline and more behaviour problems. For example, inconsistent discipline, relative to more consistent discipline, has been associated with problematic psychological adjustment of adolescents, such as depression and anxiety and externalizing behaviors, such as delinquent acts (Robin, 2008). Harsh Discipline and harsh parenting such as threatening, yelling or screaming in response to misbehaviour, is thought to contribute to more frequent externalizing behaviours that normalize violence or aggression. Studies demonstrate that harsh discipline is linked to behaviour problems ranging from conduct disorder to depression and low self-esteem. For instance, researchers found that the use of harsh discipline by societies either parent in a two-parent household was related to greater adolescent depression and externalizing behaviour.

Some studies have considered differences in harsh discipline based on the gender of both parents and the adolescent. For example, researchers indicate that paternal harsh discipline was more strongly related to sons’ aggression than to daughters’ aggression, whereas there was no gender differential effect with mothers harsh discipline (Kempe, 2009). Other studies have focused on variables that moderate the association between harsh discipline and adolescent outcomes. These studies show that harsh discipline predicted higher levels of externalizing problems over time for adolescents reporting high antisocial peer affiliations, but not for those with few antisocial peers. In other words, adolescents interactions with deviant peers tend to exacerbate rather than attenuate problems associated with negative family relations. Although research shows that physical discipline is associated with negative adolescent outcomes, the effects of disciplinary practices vary when contextual factors or other parental behaviors are considered (Goode, 1999). Researchers found that families living in poverty have increased use of corporal punishment, in which parents utilize physical punishment, such as hitting with a belt, pushing or grabbing, when administering discipline. Researchers also found a positive association between corporal punishment and adolescent externalizing behaviours.

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