Discipline and socialization of children in abusive and non-abusive families

This qualitative study examines how abusive parents' increasingly harsh administration of authoritative and punitive discipline socialized their children to act aggressively and asocially within their families' escalating interpersonal conflict. In comparison, non-abusive parents used successive instructive and authoritative discipline directing their children to engage in pro-social behaviors within their families' routine complementary role social interactions and mutual decision-making processes. These findings suggest that assessment procedures and interventive goals be changed to safeguard children in abusive families from both physical injury and dysfunctional socialization practices of their parents.