Teacher Punishment Intensity and Parental Trust: A Moderated Moderation Effect Based on CEPS 2013–2014 Survey Data

Teacher punishment serves as a critical tool not only for fostering the healthy development of adolescents but also for shaping the trust relationship between parents and teachers. Drawing on signaling theory and just deserts theory, this study examines baseline data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS 2013-2014) to explore the effects of teacher discipline intensity, student violation severity, and teacher gender on parental trust. The findings indicate the following: (1) There is a significant positive correlation between disciplinary intensity and violation severity, while both exhibit a significant negative correlation with parental trust. Teacher gender also significantly correlates positively with parental trust. (2) Violation severity moderates the negative relationship between teacher discipline intensity and parental trust. Specifically, teacher discipline intensity significantly negatively predicts parental trust under both high- and low-violation conditions, with a more pronounced negative effect under low-violation conditions; (3) For male teachers, there is a significant interaction effect between discipline intensity and violation severity on parental trust, whereas this interaction effect is not observed for female teachers. These results provide valuable insights for teachers in understanding the rationale and methods for implementing appropriate discipline to enhance parental trust.