Original Article

A Longitudinal Study of Parental Discipline of Young Children

Authors: Rebecca R. S. Socolar, MD, MPH, Eric Savage, MA, Hughes Evans, MD, PhD

Abstract

Objective: To determine how discipline practices changed over time for young children.


Methods: A cohort of parents with young children were interviewed in clinic about a broad array of disciplinary practices at two points in time.


Results: A total of 182 parents were interviewed at Time 1, and 94 were interviewed at Time 1 and 2. Mean age of the child was 16.2 months at Time 1 and 35.8 months at Time 2. Monitoring, verbal communication, and distracting were the most common types of discipline when the children were one year old. Corporal punishment (P < 0.05), verbal communication (P < 0.001), timeout (<0.0001), removing privileges (<0.0001), negative demeanor (<0.0001), and sternness (<0.0001) increased significantly from Time 1 to Time 2. Distracting (<0.001) decreased significantly and positive demeanor also decreased.


Conclusions: Most discipline practices increased in frequency over the 20 months of this study. The increase in parental negative demeanor seems particularly important and worthy of further study.


Key Points


* Most disciplinary practices increase from the time a child is one year old until he/she is 3 years old.


* Distraction and positive demeanor decreased in frequency from when the child was 1 year to 3 years old.


* The increase in negative demeanor when children are disciplined seems particularly important and worthy of further study.

This content is limited to qualifying members.

Existing members, please login first

If you have an existing account please login now to access this article or view purchase options.

Purchase only this article ($25)

Create a free account, then purchase this article to download or access it online for 24 hours.

Purchase an SMJ online subscription ($75)

Create a free account, then purchase a subscription to get complete access to all articles for a full year.

Purchase a membership plan (fees vary)

Premium members can access all articles plus recieve many more benefits. View all membership plans and benefit packages.

References

1. Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health, 1985–1988; Guidelines for Health Supervision II. Elk Grove, Ill, American Academy of Pediatrics, 1988.
 
2. Stein MT, Perrin EL. Guidance for effective discipline: AAP Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health. Pediatrics 1998:101:723–728.
 
3. Becker WC. Consequences of different kinds of parental discipline. In: Hoffman ML, Hoffman LW (eds). Review of Child Development Research. New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1964; pp 169–208.
 
4. Steinmetz SK. Disciplinary techniques and their relationship to aggressiveness, dependency, and conscience. In: Contemporary Theories about the Family. New York, Macmillan Publishing Co, 1979; pp 405–438.
 
5. Kochanska G, Tjebkes TL, Forman DR. Children’s emerging regulation of conduct: restraint, compliance, and internalization form infancy to the second year. Child Dev 1998;69:1378–1389.
 
6. McCord J. Some childrearing antecedents of criminal behavior in adult men. J Person Soc Psychol 1979;37:1477–1486.
 
7. Straus MA, Donnelly DA. Beating the Devil Out of Them: Corporal Punishment in American Families.New York, Lexington Books, 1994.
 
8. Forehand RL, Mcmahon RJ. Helping the Noncompliant Child: A Clinician’s Guide to Parent Training. New York, The Guilford Press, 1981.
 
9. Patterson GR, Reid JB, Dishion TJ. Antisocial Boys. Eugene, Ore, Castalia, 1992.
 
10. Sampson RJ. The family context of juvenile delinquency. In: Sampson RJ, Laub JH (eds). Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points Through Life. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1993.
 
11. Holmes SJ, Robins LN. The role of parental disciplinary practices in the development of depression and alcoholism. Psychiatry 1988;51:24–36.
 
12. Wissow LS. Child discipline in the first three years of life. In: Halfon N, McLearn KT, Schuster M.Child Rearing in America: Challenges Facing Parents with Young Children. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge, University Press, 2002; pp 146–177.
 
13. Socolar RR, Stein RE. Spanking infants and toddlers: maternal belief and practice. Pediatrics 1995;95:105–111.
 
14. Gallup Organization. Disciplining Children in America: A Gallup Poll Report. Princeton, NJ, Gallup Organization, 1995.
 
15. Socolar RR, Stein RE. Maternal discipline of young children: context, belief, and practice. J Dev Behav Pediatr 1996;17:1–8.
 
16. Regalado M, Sareen H, Inkelas M, et al. Parents’ discipline of young children: results from the National Survey of Early Childhood Health. Pediatrics 2004;113(6 Suppl):1952–1958.
 
17. Socolar RR, Savage E, Keyes-Elstein L, Evans H. Factors that affect parental disciplinary practices of children aged 12 to 19 months. South Med J 2005;98:1181–1191.
 
18. Vittrup B, Holden GW, Buck J. Attitudes predict the use of physical punishment: a prospective study of the emergence of disciplinary practices. Pediatrics 2006;117:2055–2064.
 
19. Socolar RRS. A classification scheme for discipline: type, mode of administration, context. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal 1997;2:355–364.
 
20. Gunnoe ML, Mariner CL. Toward a developmental contextual model of the effects of parental spanking on children’s aggression. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 1997;151:768–775.
 
21. Eamon MK. Antecedents and socioemotional consequences of physical punishment on children in two-parent families. Child Abuse Negl 2001;25:787–802.
 
22. Catron TF, Masters JC. Mothers’ and children’s conceptualizations of corporal punishment. Child Dev 1993;64:1815–1828.
 
23. Minkovitz CS, Hughart N, Strobino D, et al. A practice-based intervention to enhance quality of care in the first 3 years of life: the Healthy Steps for Young Children Program. JAMA 2003;290:3081–3091.
 
24. Socolar RR, Savage E, Devellis RF, Evans H. The Discipline Survey: a new measure of parental discipline. Ambul Pediatr 2004;4:166–173.
 
25. Benjet C, Kazdin AE. Spanking children: the controversies, findings, and new directions. Clin Psychol Rev 2003;23:197–224.