The purpose of this study was to explore the process of mothers enforcing discipline behaviors on their children in various circumstances from Symbolic Interactionism. Twenty-two mothers with 18-months-old to six-year-old children were interviewed in ...
The purpose of this study was to explore the process of mothers enforcing discipline behaviors on their children in various circumstances from Symbolic Interactionism. Twenty-two mothers with 18-months-old to six-year-old children were interviewed in depth and the data coding process was used and several facets of ‘the data analysis spiral’ were repeated for the data analysis.
The major findings of this study were as follows:
First, the participants believed that the ultimate goal of discipline was to provide the appropriate guidance to their children. They hoped their disciplinary behaviors to be permissive, consistent, and rational, by using explanations and being sympathetic role-models to their children.
Secondly, a discrepancy between the idealistic interpretation of discipline and its actual practice was found. Due to children's resistance to observing the disciplinary norms, the number of permissible actions were limited. Moreover, it was reported that mothers experienced difficulty in achieving its ideal goal because of the repeated violation of their expectancies by frequently occurring sibling quarrels or children's difficult temperament. Furthermore, disciplining children often turned out to be an outlet for mothers to vent their anger and some participants inflicted corporal punishment abruptly.
Thirdly, due to inconsistency between the pursuit of an ideal and actual disciplining manner, mothers often felt regretful, guilty, disappointed, and frustrated. To overcome these psycho-emotional states, they employed a variety of coping mechanisms; namely, direct coping, cognitive coping, and emotion-focused coping.