Parental Harsh Discipline and Migrant Children’s Anxiety in China: The Moderating Role of Parental Warmth and Gender

The present study examined the moderating effects of both parents' warmth in the relations between parental harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment) and migrant children's anxiety and parent and child gender differences in the moderating mechanism in Chinese society. This study used a sample of 477 elementary school-age children and both their parents in Chinese migrant families. We constructed a Structural Equation Model to explore the relation between parental harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment) and migrant children's anxiety and the moderating role of parental warmth. Our findings revealed that maternal but not paternal psychological aggression was found to significantly predict boys' anxiety. Moreover, maternal warmth exacerbated the relations between paternal corporal punishment and girls' anxiety. The findings provide partial support for the "healthy context paradox" and highlight the importance of considering how the broader family emotional context may interact with parental harsh discipline to influence child adjustment.