Ludan Zhang,1 Ruijie Wang,2 Liang Chen2 

1Development and Planning Department, Weifang University of Science and Technology, Weifang, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Liang Chen, School of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, No. 88, East Wenhua Road, Jinan, Shandong, 250014, People’s Republic of China, Email chen_liang1010@126.com

Purpose: This study, grounded in Social Information Processing Theory, integrates emotional warmth and harsh discipline into a unified model to investigate their differential effects on adolescents’ internalized and externalized problem behaviors, as well as to explore the potential divergences in the mediating role of inhibitory control.
Patients and Methods: Four hundred and twenty-eight adolescents completed validated scales of Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran (EMBU), Inhibitory Control and The Youth Self-Report (YSR), Data analysis was performed using SPSS 26.0 and Mplus7.4 to examine the relationship between harsh parental discipline, emotional warmth, adolescent inhibitory control, and internalized and externalized problem behaviors and the mediating effects.
Results: The present study revealed that (1) Harsh parental discipline negatively predicted both internalized and externalized problems in adolescents, while emotional warmth from fathers positively predicted internalized problem behaviors; (2) Inhibitory control acted as a mediator in the impact of harsh parental discipline on problem behaviors, while the mediating effect between paternal emotional warmth and internalization issues was not significant.
Conclusion: The impact of emotional warmth and harsh discipline on adolescent internalized and externalized problems varied. In families practicing a mixed parenting style, harsh discipline had a more significant effect on adolescents, primarily mediated through inhibitory control.

Keywords: harsh discipline, emotional warmth, inhibitory control, problem behaviors, adolescents