Behavior
Intergenerational Transmission of Parenting Practices: The Role of Childhood Exposures to Stimulations and Disciplines as Predictors of the Variety of Current Parenting Practices in Mwanza, Tanzania Yi-Tien Hsu* Yi-Tien Hsu Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
Background: Parenting practices are critical determinants of early child development, yet the intergenerational transmission of parenting behaviors in Tanzanian context remain under-explored. This study examines how frequent childhood parenting experiences predicts the number of different parenting practices caregivers use, specifically focusing on the moderating role of the caregiver’s gender.
Methods: Data from 794 participants in the Familia Bora Study was analysed. The primary exposures included caregivers’ early-life experiences of parental physical discipline and play, and the outcomes were the past month use of 7 stimulation and 9 discipline types. Linear regression models were adjusted for caregiver gender, socioeconomic status, and coresidency.
Results: Adjusted analyses showed frequent childhood exposures to maternal play had higher variety of current stimulation types (β=0.62; 95% CI: 0.37-0.86) and frequent childhood paternal play predicted a broader range of current stimulation (β=0.79; 95% CI: 0.45-1.13). No gender interaction was found for stimulation variety. Conversely, frequent childhood experience with maternal physical discipline was associated with a higher number of current discipline behaviors (β=0.44; 95% CI: 0.17-0.70) , a significant interaction was observed between maternal discipline and caregiver gender (p=0.019). Paternal physical discipline in childhood also showed a significant interaction with caregiver gender (p=0.004) regarding the types of current discipline methods used.
Conclusions: Positive and negative parenting experiences in childhood predict the variety of recent strategies caregivers use, whereas the transmission of negative disciplines varies by caregiver’s gender, indicating the transmission of diversed discipline repertoire is gender-dependent.
Key words: intergenerational transmission of parenting behaviors, stimulation and discipline, and gender