本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Spare the rod and calm the child: study: Punitive parenting spawns aggression
National Post
Tue 26 Oct 2004

A new Canadian study links punitive parenting techniques to aggressive children, suggesting changing discipline methods could reduce children's aggression.

Children whose parents use physical forms of punishment or shouting are much more likely to show aggressive behaviour, the study found.

But if parents shift to a less strict form of disciplining, such as time- outs or discussions about behaviour, children quickly become no more aggressive than other kids.

The findings are contained in a Statistics Canada study that tracked 2,000 children, and interviewed their parents about behaviour and emotion when the children were two to three years old and again when they were between eight and nine.

The study gives statistical backing for what child development experts have been insisting for years -- strict parental disciplinary methods only teach children to be aggressive.

"There's absolutely no doubt that punitive parenting -- hitting and yelling -- simply does not enhance kids' behaviour. It does not yield positive outcomes," said Joan Durrant, who heads the department of family social services at the University of Manitoba.

She says the study highlights the need for greater emphasis on parenting programs.

"As a society, we take TV violence really seriously and really work on minimizing children's exposure to violence.... So why don't we think they're learning from what goes on in the home? That is the first learning environment," Dr. Durrant said.

The study, Aggressive Behaviour Outcomes for Young Children, surveyed parents across the country on their parenting styles and on their children's behaviour patterns, in both 1994 and again in 2000.

Punitive parenting was measured by asking parents how often they used physical punishment or yelled and shouted at their child, compared with how often they discussed the problem in a calm manner or taught the child to respond more appropriately.

To measure aggressive behaviour in children, researchers tallied up a score of how often children demonstrated an aggressive reaction, such as getting into fights, bullying or being bullied, or being mean to other children.

The study found two- to three-year-olds raised in a more punitive style scored 39% higher on the scale of aggressive behaviours. The difference was even more significant as the children grew older, with the eight- and nine-year-olds raised in punitive homes scoring 83% higher on the aggressive behaviour scale.

Children raised by parents using non-punitive methods were much less likely, at both ages, to show aggressive behaviour, the study found.

What the research also showed, however, was that these behaviour patterns were not fixed and did not necessarily persist throughout childhood.

When parenting styles that had been punitive at an early age shifted to a less harsh style, those children scored much lower when older on the aggressive rating scale. In fact, children in these homes where a shift in parenting tactics occurred scored just as low in aggression as those children who had been raised in less punitive homes all along.

"These are encouraging results in that they suggest that early disadvantage in the family environment does not necessarily imply poor outcomes later," said Eleanor Thomas, the developmental psychology expert who authored the report for Statistics Canada.

Alan Mirabelli, spokesman for the Vanier Institute of the Family, says parents often shift their tactics as their children get older because a teacher or daycare worker comments on the child's aggressiveness, or because they are exposed to a broader range of discipline tactics through play groups.

In many cases, he said, parents may simply become frustrated that heavy-handed tactics are not yielding results.

"Parents generally start out disciplining the only way they know," he said, "so changing that is all about how you expand their repertoire of disciplinary responses."更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net