Pooled time series is an underused analytic technique with the potential to increase researchers' ability to exploit clinical data. This article demonstrates the value of pooled time series by analyzing the behavior of youths in a specialized foster care treatment setting in response to a naturally occurring clinical event: changes in the number of youths living together in a treatment foster care setting. Pooled time series moves beyond typical clinical analyses with an increased capability of controlling statistically for complex within-subject effects and with a clinically useful measure of effect size. The complexity of the intrasubject data made it virtually impossible to determine the relevant significance (i.e., clinical meaning) of the clinical event by the use of standard n = 1 visual analysis procedures or standard statistical methods (e.g., chi square). After things such as autocorrelation and individual time trends were statistically controlled, each additional youth increased the number of problematic behaviors by one behavior per youth per day on the Parent Daily Report.
The most important finding of the review is that there are not enough quality studies that document detrimental outcomes of nonabusive physical punishment to support advice or policies against this age-old parental practice. Only 30 relevant journal articles were found from 1974 through 1995, an average of less than 1 1/2 per year. Next, many of the studies had methodological weaknesses, and the stronger ones were more likely to find beneficial outcomes of physical punishment. A particularly pervasive weakness was that no prospective or retrospective study controlled for the original frequency or severity of child problem behavior, which would be like studying cancer recurrences following radiation treatment without taking into account the severity or existence of the original cancer. More quality research is needed on nonabusive physical punishment. Public and private agencies should make quality research on the broader topic of parental discipline a top priority. How parents use discipline tactics may be more important than which ones they consider off limits. Effects of physical punishment, as well as nonphysical punishment, probably depend on when and how parents implement it, its role in their overall approach to parental discipline, and the overall parentchild relationship. Other aspects of parental discipline may be more important indicators of dysfunctional parenting than whether parents spank or not.
Despite decades of research on parental discipline, major controversies still remain. Leading research investigators have acknowledged that evidence is inconclusive about the effectiveness of alternative parental discipline responses to child misbehavior (e.g., Grusec & Goodnow, 1994; Patterson, 1982). Consider, for example, whether punishment (i.e., negative consequences) or reasoning should be preferred as a discipllne response to misbehavior. Behavioral parental training programs feature time out as a consequence for child misbehavior (e.g., Forehand & McMahon, 1981). The only form of reasoning in such training programs is a specification of the conditions for time out. On the other hand, cognitive socialization theorists recommend reasoning rather than punishments such as time out or spanking (e.g., Hoffman, 1977; Lepper, 1983). This study is part of a research program designed to synthesize behavioral and cognitive views of socialization, and is one of the few attempts to do so. The program investigates the effectiveness of alternative parental discipline responses in delaying the next recurrence of toddler misbehavior. Of central interest in this particular study is how the effects of alternative discipline responses vary according to the level of child distress experienced following the parental discipline response. Before summarizing the implications of behavioral versus cognitive theories for the role of child distress in discipline effectiveness, some definitions are in order. In this article, a discipline technique is a specific tactic used by a parent in response to an incident of child misbehavior. discipline response is a set of one or more discipline techniques that constitute the entire parental response to a particular misbehavior incident. Negative consequences or simply consequences refer to punitive discipline techniques or responses, including time out, withdrawal of privileges, and nonabusive spanking. A child's emotional reaction to discipline is considered to be relevant for moral internalization according to behavioral and cognitive theories of socialization. First, behavioral theories hold that moral inhibition occurs because of conditioned anxiety. Conditioned anxiety, in turn, develops when misbehaviors are paired with negative consequences (Aronfreed, 1968). Behavioral studies of negative consequences have found that the greater the intensity of the consequences, the greater their effectiveness (Azrin & Holz, 1966; Matson & DiLorenzo, 1984; Van Houten, 1983). This suggests that the higher the level of a child's anxiety following negative consequences, the greater the resulting moral inhibition. Some laboratory analogue studies have found that the severity of negative consequences increased subsequent moral inhibition when no verbal component was included in the discipline response. However, the inclusion of reasoning reduced or eliminated the association between consequence severity and subsequent moral inhibition (Cheyne, Goyeche, & Walters, 1969; Cheyne & Walters, 1969; Parke, 1969). Second, Hoffman's (1977, 1983) information-processing theory views the cognitive and affective aspects of discipline incidents as crucial for moral internalization. He divides discipline responses into three types: power assertion, love withdrawal, and induction. Power assertion depends on parents' power advantage relative to that of the child, that is, the use of force, deprivation of privileges, or threats. Love withdrawal techniques implicitly remove parental love toward the child, such as nonphysical expressions of parental anger or disapproval. Induction communicates reasons for the desired behavior, including connecting appropriate behavior to the child's desires or to its effect on other people. Most discipline responses have a power-assertive component, a love-withdrawal component, and an induction component. Mild forms of the first two components are considered necessary to get a child to pay attention to the induction component. …
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of 2 behavior rating scales (1 describing child behavior and the other describing parent behavior) in predicting child behavior during dental treatment.Participants consisted of 52 children, ages 3 to 12 years, and their parents. Parents completed the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory and the Parent-Child Relationship Inventory while children received restorative dental treatment. Disruptive behavior was observed and coded. Dentists also provided subjective Frankl ratings of child behavior.Correlational analyses confirmed that age was the single best and only independent predictor of disruptive behavior in children during a restorative dental visit. However, a backward multiple regression demonstrated that the Support Scale and Limit Setting Scale of the Parent-Child Relationship Inventory were significant predictors of child disruptive behavior, but only when both scales were in the regression analysis. The Frankl ratings also significantly predicted observed disruptive behavior, supporting the construct validity of both the objective and subjective measures of problem behavior.Child age and parent reports of the parent-child relationship predicted child disruptiveness in the dental clinic, while parent reports of child behavior alone did not.
The current study explored the role of parents' negative and positive affect in adolescent respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity during a parent-adolescent conflict discussion task and the moderating effects of adolescent sex and age. Questionnaire data were collected from 206 adolescents (10-18 years of age; M = 13.37 years) and their primary caregivers (83.3% biological mothers). Electrocardiogram and respiration data were collected from adolescents, and RSA variables were computed. Parent affect was coded during the conflict discussion task. Multilevel modeling was used to distinguish the between- and within-individual effects of parent affect on adolescent RSA. Results indicated that observed within-parent-teen dyad anger was negatively associated with adolescent RSA, controlling for previous-minute RSA level, particularly among adolescents 13 years and older. In addition, observed between-dyad positive affect was positively linked to RSA for both boys and girls when previous-minute RSA level was controlled. Within-dyad positive affect was positively related to girl's RSA only. These findings suggest that expressions of positive affect may be related to better vagal regulation (RSA increases), whereas expressions of anger may be related to poor vagal regulation (RSA decreases) during social engagement.
Abstract This chapter discusses the topic of corporal punishment of children from a behavioral-theory and behavior-therapy perspective. Basic principles of learning theory are presented, followed by information based upon the work of behavioral clinicians. The goal is to address the question of how we can better understand the causes and consequences of corporal punishment and utilize this knowledge in an objective way to assist families in the important process of raising their children to be secure, adaptive, and productive people. A discussion of how behavioral research and its application can inform us about the causes of corporal punishment and its effects on children, families, and society is of great utility.
ABSTRACT ABSTRACT To compare the effectiveness of maternal punishment (e.g., time out, spanking), reasoning, and the combination of the two, 40 volunteer mothers recorded their responses to incidents of toddler fighting and disobedience in a structured diary for 4 weeks. Punishment frequency correlated positively with misbehavior frequency, but non-punishment responses correlated even more strongly with misbehavior. The mean delay until a misbehavior recurrence was significantly longer after a punishment-reasoning combination (e.g., 20.0 waking hours until a fighting recurrence) than after punishment alone (9.3 hrs.), reasoning alone (8.8), or other responses (9.4), P <.001. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive developmental and behavioral perspectives of parental discipline. Corporal and non-corporal forms of punishment are also compared.
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