The planned parental discipline strategies of college students: The role of behavioral principles knowledge

Negative parenting practices are associated with a host of negative outcomes for children. These practices may arise from the intergenerational transmission of parenting beliefs and subsequent practices, which involves individuals adopting accepting views of their disciplinary experiences, whether they were positive or negative. Although many studies of this phenomenon focus on current parents, research supports that these beliefs are evident prior to parenthood and pre-parent parenting attitudes can be modified by education. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a brief behavioral principles education module would increase the acceptability and reported likelihood of using positive discipline strategies in the future in pre-parent college students. Participants were randomized to the experimental (i.e., behavioral principles education module, n = 87) and control (i.e., safe practices training, n = 84) groups. Assessments were completed at pre- and post-training. Results indicated the experimental group demonstrated significantly greater behavioral principles knowledge compared to the control group; however, completing the behavioral principles education module did not make a significant impact on endorsement of positive discipline acceptability or intent to use positive discipline in the future. Thus, it is unclear whether behavioral principles knowledge is a viable mechanism of change in improving pre-parent discipline attitudes and intentions. However, post hoc analyses support the relationship between discipline experiences and discipline intent is mediated by discipline acceptability. This indicates that development of a training which does impact discipline attitudes will likely impact discipline intentions. Methodological, theoretical, and training implications are discussed.