Families and Young Children: What Constitutes Effective Parental Discipline?

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Table of Contents

Background
Synthesis
Method
Results
Discussions
Conclusion
References

Background

Good discipline in children is always the desire of every parent and for this reason; parents must know and learn strategies that constitute good discipline among their children.

In advising parents about effectiveness, methods of instilling discipline in their children the relationship between the parents and the children, importance of good behaviours and consequences of bad behaviours are of great concern (Carey, 2003).

The word discipline is adopted from a Greek word discipline, which can be interpreted as teaching or instructing. The early stages of a child’s development are essential in the development of a child discipline and any values that a child acquires at this stage of development will be reflected in their adulthood (Powers, 1990).

The purpose of this study therefore was to investigate how parents can be effective in disciplining their children. The study therefore was an investigation on the effectiveness of the various methods that can be applied in instilling discipline among children (Kohlberg, 1992).

In this study, the investigation was carried out among children below the school age. In addition, the main aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of the different approaches that are taken by parents in disciplining their children.

Good relationship between parents and their children is an effective method of promoting good discipline among children (Papalia, 2006). Good behaviour among children requires an effort from both the child and the parents and for this reason rewarding desirable behaviour is not only important in encouraging good behaviour but it can be an effective tool for instilling discipline among children.

Punishment for bad behaviour has always been thought to be a solution for bad behaviour among children. However, corporal punishment is not an effective method of disciplining children (mash & Wolfe, 2008).

Synthesis

The relationship between parents and their children is an effective tool of promoting good behaviour. Children cannot be forced to have good behaviour and therefore encouraging good behaviour among children becomes effective in promoting good behaviours. Good relationship between the child and the parents ensures children of their security and hence promote their behaviour (Wallis, 2003).

Rewarding children for good behaviour is an effective strategy of encouraging children to behave well (Sears & Maccoby 1976). The parents or guardians must make an effort in the promotion of good behaviour among children and hence rewarding children for their good behaviour is a method that has been known to work.

Although punishing children for the mistakes they commit has been applied by many parents, as a method for promoting good behaviour among children the fact is that this method is not effective. Continued use of this method will also promote bad behaviour among children.

Actually, it will harden their response to any effort meant at promoting good behaviour that is it will make children rebel against the authority and their parents. Corporal punishment is one of the biggest mistakes that parents can make as a method of promoting good behaviours among children (McCord, 1996).

Method

During the investigation, several methods were applied to collect and analyze the data with the main aim of producing a comprehensive report on children behaviour. The subjects of the investigation were parents, children below school age and nurses assigned with the role of taking care of children in children homes and homes of individual parents.

The investigation was divided into two parts where the first study was to focus on response from children and the second part was to focus on the parent’s side of the story. In this study, the data collection tools that were applied were questionnaires, interviews and direct observation.

These tools were applied on the two phases of the study according to their suitability. In the first phase of the investigation, parents and baby sitters were given questionnaires, which they were expected to fill and hand back to the field interviewers within one day.

The questionnaires used had structured question where some were open-ended questions while others were closed ended questions. These questions were designed in such a way that they could provide us with sufficient information that was required in the study.

The questions in the questionnaires were designed in a way that they addressed the interests of both the parents and the children. The questions therefore enquired about the methods that parents and guardians think are effective in promoting good behaviour among children. The questions also investigated on how children view the discipline measures applied by their parents and guardians (Pantley, 2007).

Observation was also another effective tool that was used in the investigation. During the study, our fieldwork representatives were supposed to select a case study, which was supposed to be a home or a baby care centre.

The representatives then spent about one day in this selected place and carried out an observation on the behaviour of children and on their response from various disciplinary measures that were applied by their guardians. The field representative also observed on the relationship between the child and the parent or the guardian before and after a child was punished or was involved in bad behaviour.

The use of secondary resources was also applied as a method of finding ideas about the research problem. The secondary sources used to find the information that were required in the study were books, magazines, and journals, which were obtained from the library resources. Each member of our group was involved actively in identifying and finding these recourses (Wendkos-Olds, 2006).

In the study, the data collected was recorded in tables and various parameters were assigned according to the research findings. The data was then analyzed using statistical software SPSS to evaluate mean, median and the variance.

Results

In the study, the findings were that children who had good relationship or those who took their parents as their friends had good behaviors.
Parents who did not have good relationship with their children used inappropriate methods to discipline their children.
Children who were rewarded for good behaviors by their parents or guardians had better behaviors than those who were not rewarded.
Children who were constantly punished for a particular bad behavior were more likely to repeat the same mistake than those who received counseling.
Parents who applied corporal punishment as a method of dealing with children who misbehaved did not have good relationship with their children as compared to those who did not punish their children.
Children were afraid of punishment.
Parents use corporal punishment on their children as the last alternative.

Discussions

Good relationship between children and their parents or guardians is a known effective method that can be applied in promoting good behaviours among children. In the study, there was a direct correlation between good behaviour in children and strong relationship between children and their parents (Salkind, 2006).

The reason why children who have good relations with their parents behaved well is because such children confided in their parents and they believed in their parents as their guides and mentors (MacDonald, 2000).

In the investigation, it was found out that children who were rewarded for good behaviours are likely to behave badly in the future (Sears & Maccoby, 1976). Children learn through imitations and for this reason, rewarding children for good behaviours are an incentive that has been known to work.

On the other hand, children who lacked incentive for good behaviour did not see the reason for continuing with good behaviour and in the end; they behaved badly (Straus & Donnelly, 2001).

Although most parents and guardians have the idea that corporal punishment is a tool for discouraging bad behaviour in children it does not work in the long term. In a report released recently less that, 59% of paediatricians recommend it (McCormick, 1992).

Children who are constantly punished for committing a certain mistake become used to the punishment and therefore at the end they stop responding to the punishment and misbehave constantly (Garmezy & Rutter, 2003).

Conclusion

Good behaviour in children is an important factor in their development and in building strong relationship between them and their children.

Punishing children for bad behaviour is a short-term solution or method of dealing with bad behaviour among children. Although establishing good relationship between parents and their children do not have immediate results it is a good method of ensuring good behaviour among children in the long term.

References

Carey, S. (2003). The whole child: Rrestoring wonder to the art of parenting. Oxford. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Garmezy, N., & Rutter, M. (2003). Stress, coping, and development in children. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Kohlberg, L. (1992). Development of moral character and moral ideology. New York, NY: Russell-Sage Foundation.

MacDonald, A. (2000). Parenting with heart. Haverford: Infinity Publishers.

Mash, E., & Wolfe, D. (2008). Abnormal Child Psychology. Belmont: Cengage Learning

McCormick K. (1992). Attitudes of primary care physicians toward corporal punishment. JAMA267, 3161, 3165

McCord, J. (1996). Unintended consequences of punishment, Pediatrics. ; 98:832–834

Pantley, E. (2007). The no-cry discipline solution: Gentle ways to encourage good behaviour: New York: McGraw Hill.

Papalia, D. (2006). A child’s world: Infancy through adolescence (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Powers, S (1990). Adjusting chair time-out enforcement procedures for oppositional children, Behav Ther21, 257, 271

Salkind, N. (2006). Encyclopedia of human development Volume 1. Michigan: Sage Publication

Sears, R., & Maccoby, E. (1976). Patterns of child rearing. California: Stanford University Press.

Straus, M., & Donnelly, D. (2001). Beating the devil out of them: Corporal punishment in America. New Jersey. Transaction Publishers.

Wallis, M. (2003) A parent’s guide to preparing your child for school: London. Pascal Press.

Wendkos-Olds, S. (2006). A child’s world: Infancy through adolescence (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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