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Immediate antecedents of caretakers' methods of discipline

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Abstract

The interactions of children's behaviors and caretakers' disciplinary practices were studied. Mothers of one- to two-year-old children were trained to report parent-child interactions involving negative emotions. Mothers' observations thus provided data on sequences of child behaviors and parental discipline methods in affective encounters. Mothers' most frequent initial responses to children's misbehaviors were verbal prohibitions. Discipline methods less commonly used were explanations, restraint, instruction, physical punishment, and love withdrawal. Mothers made greater use of this range of control methods following children's noncompliance to discipline. Types of discipline were used differentially following noncompliance, depending upon the form of misbehavior. Children's harms against persons were associated with psychological discipline methods, such as reasoning and dramatization of distress. Destruction of property and lapses in self-control in children were associated with parental power assertive techniques, such as physical punishment and love withdrawal. These associations between child behaviors and parental discipline methods illustrate the interactive roles of child and parent in mediating parental attempts to control, teach, and punish their children.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Developmental Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland

    Carolyn Zahn-Waxler & Michael Chapman

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  1. Carolyn Zahn-Waxler
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  2. Michael Chapman
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Additional information

The authors would like to express their appreciation to the following: John Bartko, NIMH statistician, for his advice on statistical analysis; David Barrett, Mark Cummings, and Leon Kuczynski for their constructive comments on an earlier version of the manuscript; Christine Davenport, Arlene Kimata, and Jean Darby Welsh for data reduction and analysis; Eunice Kennelly for preparation of the manuscript; and the 24 children and their mothers who provided observations of the family environment.

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Zahn-Waxler, C., Chapman, M. Immediate antecedents of caretakers' methods of discipline. Child Psych Hum Dev 12, 179–192 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00706071

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