Effective disciplinary skills : the role of parents and social workers

Abstract

'Discipline' is useful because it teaches children self-control and self-discipline. There are basically three methods of discipline - the autocratic, the permissive and the democratic style. In disciplining their children, parents tend to fit in either of these. This qualitative study, explores the method that Maltese parents use in disciplining their children. A sample of nine families, including the pilot study, were selected from two church schools - De La Salle, for boys and Stella Maris, for girls. All children were six or seven years of age. After carrying out three half-hour sessions with each family - consisting of a semi-structured interview, an observation and a short-questionnaire - I verified my hypothesis, i.e. that the eight Maltese parents are autocratic. Unfortunately, in today's day and age, autocratic parenting does not fit in very well. In fact, the most effective disciplinary method is the democratic style of parenting - the method which social workers (who work directly with families at all level of needs) should teach to parents. So, although it may sometimes seem that "it is easier to rule a nation than bring up a child" as a Chinese proverb says, effective discipline can truly turn a reckless child into a responsible, cooperative, successful, and most important of all one who feels good about him/herself.