The purpose of this study was to identify how characteristics of children, parents, and the family context relate to parental disciplinary practices and to examine the effects of cumulative positive variables on effective parental disciplinary practic...
The purpose of this study was to identify how characteristics of children, parents, and the family context relate to parental disciplinary practices and to examine the effects of cumulative positive variables on effective parental disciplinary practices. Subjects were 220 each mothers and fathers of 6-year-old children. Data were analyzed with correlation, multiple regression, and chi-square. Both Maternal and paternal disciplinary practices were correlated with child birth order, child emotionality, attention span and persistence, perceived social support and quality of life, and retrospective punitive parenting. Perceived quality of life and social support were predictive of maternal disciplinary practices and child emotionality was predictive of paternal disciplinary practices. Both mothers and fathers exposed to several positive variables were much more likely to exhibit effective disciplinary practices than parents exposed to no positive variables. Findings were generally consistent with Belsky`s(1984) process model of parenting.