Abstract

Several studies support the significant association between specific parental practices and children maladjustment. In particular, it has been demonstrated that parental practices (e.g., explicit rules, direct reinforce of children behavior, inductive reasoning) encourage children adjustment and prevent children maladjustment. In contrast, parental practices (e.g., physical or severe discipline) reinforce children misbehaviors. Even though there are many authors who elaborated several instruments to assess parental practices, the majority of the studies focusing on parental practices have examined usa samples, thus the reliability of instrument assessing parental practices in samples other than usa ones is in doubt. The present study examined the relationship between parental practices and children maladjustment in a sample of about 200 Italian family triads (father, mother, and 8-10 year old children) who are part of an ongoing longitudinal study that involves 100 family triads in 8 countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, United States). The aims of the present study are (1) to identify macro-dimensions of parental practices with the so-called Discipline Interview (Lansford et al., 2005); (2) analyze the association between parental practices and children maladjustment. Three macro-dimensions of parental practices emerged from the examination of the Discipline Interview, supported by adequate reliability indices: physical discipline, psychological aggression, and non punitive parenting. Positive correlations emerged between the three aforementioned parental practices and both internalizing and externalizing problems assessed by Child-Behavior Check-List (Achenbach, 1991).