European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 12 : 84 – 91 (2003) DOI 10.1007/s00787-003-0324-4 ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION ECAP 324 Anne Thompson Chris Hollis David Richards† Authoritarian parenting attitudes as a risk for conduct problems Results from a British national cohort study Accepted: 29 January 2003 Dr. A. Thompson () Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service Lincoln Partnership NHS Trust Moore House, 10/11 Lindum Terrace Lincoln, LN2 5RS,UK Tel.: +44-15 22/5 13-7 85 Fax: +44-1522/513-405 Prof. C. Hollis Section of Developmental Psychiatry Division of Psychiatry The University of Nottingham Queens Medical Centre Nottingham, NG7 2 UH, UK Dr. D. Richards† Division of Child Health The University of Nottingham Queens Medical Centre Nottingham, NG7 2 UH, UK ■ Abstract This study examines the associations, and possible causal relationship, between moth- ers’ authoritarian attitudes to disci- pline and child behaviour using cross-sectional and prospective data from a large population sam- ple surveyed in the 1970 British Cohort Study. Results show a clear linear relationship between the de- gree of maternal approval of au- thoritarian child-rearing attitudes and the rates of conduct problems at age 5 and age 10. This associa- tion is independent of the con- founding effects of socio-economic status and maternal psychological distress. Maternal authoritarian at- titudes independently predicted the development of conduct prob- lems 5 years later at age 10. The re- sults of this longitudinal study sug- gest that authoritarian parenting attitudes expressed by mothers may be of significance in the devel- opment of conduct problems. ■ Key words discipline – parental attitudes – conduct problems Introduction The association between parental discipline styles and childhood conduct problems has been the subject of psychological research for over 50 years. Theoretical models of the processes by which parenting behaviour may be associated with disturbed child behaviour have become increasingly sophisticated, moving from sim- plistic cause and effect ideas to complex multi-factorial models which include the impact that children have on their parents’ behaviour [14, 15]. Harsh parental discipline is one aspect of parenting which is associated with the development of childhood conduct disorder [16]. Meta-analysis suggests it is prob- ably the third most important parenting behaviour as- sociated with childhood conduct disorder, with parental time spent with the child and parental supervision of the child being more influential [9].“Harsh”discipline is de- fined in various ways by different researchers. In gen- eral, harsh discipline encompasses a restrictive style of interaction with children which does not take their views and wishes into account, and in which the parent responds to unwanted child behaviour with severe pun- ishment. Maccoby and Martin [17] describe an ‘Author- itarian-Power Assertive’dimension of parenting charac- terised by “firmly enforced rules and edicts decided by parents, without acceptance of children’s demands and without bargaining and discussion”. Preschool children who receive this style of parenting have been shown to be less content, less secure and more likely to become hostile or regressive when under stress than other chil- dren [2].Young children who have experienced author- itarian parenting tend to be less popular and behave less helpfully towards their peers [6]. In clinical settings, naturalistic observations of parental discipline practice are rarely possible. Clini- cians usually have to rely on accounts given by parents