Socolar Rebecca R S, Savage Eric, Keyes-Elstein Lynette, Evans Hughes
Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and Department of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7225, USA.
South Med J. 2005 Dec;98(12):1181-91. doi: 10.1097/01.smj.0000190177.12387.07.
Physicians are encouraged to provide counseling regarding parental discipline. Quality counseling requires knowledge of disciplinary practices and factors that affect these practices.
One hundred and eighty two parents of 12- to 19-month-old children from general pediatric clinics in North Carolina and Alabama were interviewed regarding discipline using the Discipline Survey. Measures of contextual factors were analyzed to see which predicted disciplinary practices.
Ninety-two percent of the participants were mothers; 6% were fathers; participation rate: 78%. Monitoring was the most common type of discipline used and time out was the least common. Parent, child, and family characteristics were all importantly associated with a broad array of disciplinary practices and modes of administration. However, the situation in which discipline occurred was found to be significant for most disciplinary practices even after controlling for other factors. Our study found that the specific misbehavior was most likely, and the presence of the other parent was least likely, to affect the type of discipline which was utilized.
When counseling families about discipline, practitioners should incorporate the fact that misbehavior happens in various contexts.
