Parents' worries about discipline, parents' personal growth, and children's cognition of their parents' discipline

Abstract

The present study was aimed at explicating the relation between parents' worries and their personal growth in relation to their discipline of their children, and children's cognition of their parents' disciplinary practices. Parents of 7 th to 12 th grade children (6 fathers, 9 mothers) were interviewed about their discipline-related worries and their personal growth. In addition, 327 parent-child pairs (a father or mother, plus one of their children in the 7 th to 12 th grade) completed questionnaires. The parents completed 2 scales based on the interview results; the children completed 1 scale evaluating their view of their parents' attitudes towards discipline. The main results of the analysis were: (a) both parental scales revealed the existence of 5 core factors, (b) a significant relationship was revealed between the children's high evaluation of their parents' discipline and their parents' high scores on personal growth, and (c) parents' worries could be classified into several patterns, under each of which the children's evaluations and the parents' personal growth differed.