This study examines attitudes on physical punishment based on mothers' nursing stress and experiences of ill-treatment which are factors of child abuse to identify characteristics of mothers, targeting mothers of elementary school students who are mai...
This study examines attitudes on physical punishment based on mothers' nursing stress and experiences of ill-treatment which are factors of child abuse to identify characteristics of mothers, targeting mothers of elementary school students who are main nurses at home. Based on the results, it is to find effective social welfare plan for prevention of child abuse.
This study surveyed mothers' characteristics that are thought to influence attitudes of physical punishment through documentary records and decided ill-treatment experiences of parents and nursing stress as factors that influence physical punishment.
For this study, mothers of Mokpo elementary school students were interviewed with questionnaire from October 25, 2005 to November 14, 2005 and the data collected were analysed with a use of the SPSS/WIN 10.0 program. To identify many-sided characteristics, it carried descriptive statistical analyses on frequency, percentage, average, median value and standard deviation and a regression analysis to identify difference between each variable.
The results of the study are summarized as follows:
First, to sum up demo-social characteristics of mothers shown in frequency analysis, it was found that they were related to higher level of educational background. It can be compared with lower level of educational background of the parents who did violence. More than 50% of the subjects were categorized into mothers who had job and those who did not have job, but it was found that there was no significant difference in attitude on physical punishment according to job.
Second, as a result of regression analysis on the assumption that mothers' nursing stress will affect attitude of physical punishment to their children, it was found that there was a significant difference in mothers' attitude on physical punishment according to nursing stress. It indicates that as mothers had higher nursing stress, they had more attitude of physical punishment. That is, there was a correlation between mothers' nursing stress and physical punishment.
Third, as a result of regression analysis on the assumption that experience of ill-treatment of mothers who had children in school period will affect attitude of physical punishment to their children, it was found that mothers' experience of ill-treatment showed significant relations with attitudes of physical punishment rather than fathers' experience. It equals to the suggestions that mothers' attitudes on physical punishment were derived and acquired from their mothers, and violent nursing derived from their parents brought about impulsive nature and they showed higher level of anger and impulse. Based on the results, violent nursing experience learned from parents are postnatal, a factor that is supported by the social learning theory.
In particular, this study showed that fathers' violence was not significant, but mothers' violence showed significant results, which suggest that mothers' influence is greater than fathers'
Fourth, as a result of the analysis on the assumption that demo-sociological factors of mothers will affect attitude of physical punishment to their children, it was found that mothers' age, job, education and income ad not significant relations with physical punishment of their children. That is, there was no significant difference according to number of children. However, there was a significant difference in attitude of physical punishment according to number of children, and when the number of children was two, the score of physical punishment attitude was high.
Fifth, as a result of the analysis on the assumption that demo-sociological factors of mothers will affect nursing stress, it was found nursing stress was higher as family income was lower. The subject mothers' nursing stress was low, but families with low income showed higher stress.
According to educational background, nursing stress showd significant difference. Mothers who did not graduate from even elementary schools were just six, but it is believed that nursing stress had correlations with educational background. Parents' age, education, job, monthly average income, and the number of children affected nursing stress, and parents who nursed more than three children rather than those who had one or two showed higher stress.
Physical punishment as one of instructions is commonly used in our society, but the problem is that attitude on physical punishment is a risk factor that may bring out child abuse. According to the 2004 child abuse report presented by the national child abuse preventive center, 75. 5% of child abuse occurred at home. Of the children who were ill-treated, 48.8% were elementary school students. In particular, attitude on physical punishment of mothers as main nurses at home had a decisive influence on growth and development of children, which may bring out child abuse. However, as long as human being exist, instruction is necessary and physical punishment as one of instruction methods is a necessary evil of our society. In this situation, it is thought that instructions on physical punishment for parents are necessary.
This study found that ill-treatment experiences of mothers had a significant relations with physical treatment of children, which suggests that mothers' punishment attitude has a direct influence on children and supports previous studies on ' transfer between generations'. Through results of the study on nursing stress and physical punishment, it was suggested that parent training programs to encourage positive view on children and to teach how to control emotion which may decrease physical punishment are necessary.
However, current parents education are targeting parents who have sufficient financial ability and much time, and are interested in parent training. Most of them do not recognize even necessity of parent training and in reality, families relating to violence and poverty which need parent training do not have opportunities of training and they are just exposed to the training through mass media. In longer-term prospect, parent training should be provided for future parents and to nurse children properly, behavior models on children training without anger and violence should be presented. When physical punishment is decreased through parent training programs, child abuse is expected to be prevented.