Parental discipline styles and strategies and their effect on the development of primary school children

Abstract

Area of Study: My chosen area of study discusses the impact that parental disciplinary styles and strategies have on the development of primary school children. After researching about the different parental styles, I have been inspired to focus more on positive parenting (also known as authoritative parenting), and its benefits. This inspiration has resulted from my interest in the area of wellbeing. Since childhood is supposedly the least stressful period in the life course, parents should do all in their power to avoid compromising the child’s wellbeing by making them feel misunderstood. Therefore, parents should support their children by including emotional awareness and solutions for disruptive emotions through positive parenting. This suggests a slight shift in the focus of my dissertation, but its aims and significance remain unchanged. Aims and significance of the study: The purpose of this dissertation is to determine which disciplinary strategies indicate a positive relationship with the child’s development as opposed to, those which demonstrate negative effects on such development, or even worse irreversible impacts. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is one of the most ratified human rights treaties, which insists upon society’s need to rethink and reconsider the way children are treated. Children require a positive family environment, characterised by an atmosphere of love, happiness, and understanding. Policy makers are prime stakeholders in protecting the rights of children, and the first step to do so is by knowing what is expected from parents with regards to how they treat, approach, and discipline their children. Parents are expected to be informed about how to nurture their children, and also guide them in acquiring skills and abilities while becoming autonomous beings. Since my research is going to be about parental discipline styles and strategies, and the effect they have on the development of primary school children, the provided information can contribute to knowledge. Specifically, it can help contribute to the understanding of how parental discipline regimes can affect children. Social Policy is essential in ensuring good beginnings for all children and, knowing about positive disciplinary styles is the first essential step in promoting these styles and creating awareness on the impacts of different approaches to discipline. My research topic can be used as a guide for policy makers in creating programs for children and parents to build a proper relationship which benefits both. Both children and society pay a high social and economic price when boys and girls are not given a proper childhood. Material assistance and support programmes can be good tools for social policy makers to work against this possibility through supporting positive parenting. (Positive Parenting National StrategicPolicy, 2016) The research question might communicate the idea that there is a right “discipline style” and the right “discipline strategies,” versus the wrong “discipline styles” and the wrong “discipline strategies. The motivation of the study is not to label certain styles as superior to others but to shed light on those styles which, research shows are working well especially with regards to development. Further, it is important to consider that a discipline style or strategy is not devoid of the value context within which parenting takes place and, within which the parent-child relationship develops. Background: Legal background: Since the area of the study mainly tackles the relationship between children and their parents, it is important to establish an understanding of what is meant by keywords which will be repeatedly used in the study, mainly according to the laws of Malta. As per Chapter 602, Article 38 (b) of the Minor Protection (Alternative Care) Act, 2019, one may find the legal definition of ‘child’ and ‘parent’. Parent means “the biological mother or the father of the minor or any other person who, by an express provision of the law, has parental responsibility for such minor”. Child, referred to as a minor “means a child under eighteen years of age”. Throughout my study I will be referring to Maltese and Gozitan primary school children who are of compulsory primary school age, these are aged between five to eleven years. In other words, from year one to year six. Furthermore, a parent’s obligation to look after, maintain, instruct, and educate their children binds a person acting in loco parentis. This means that a person would be taking responsibility for a child to whom they are not parents, but acting as such since the child’s parents are absent. Parental authority involves major responsibilities such as custody and access as well as, decisions about place of residence, travel, maintenance, education, choices about health and management of children’s belongings (European Judicial Network, 2017). Psychosocial background: In an article on the Times of Malta, Michael Falzon the Maltese Minister responsible for Family, Children’s Rights and Social Solidarity (2017), implied that the way we are treated as children does not only have immediate effects, but others which are long-term too. Parenting practices during childhood leaves a mark on the well-being of children and their various forms of development, the most basic being physical, intellectual, social, emotional, and moral. Further detail about each form of development will be included. The first step which allows parents to build a healthy relationship with their children is attachment. Attachment is a strong psychological and emotional bond between two people, characterized by a desire to maintain proximity and mutual affection (Lenzi et al., 2015). It is the same bond that we foster with important individuals in our lives. When these people are around, we feel safe and content. Attachment allows for a person to use another as a ‘safe base’ from which to explore the rest of the world (Matias et al., 2013). Unfortunately, not all children are lucky enough to have such positive experiences that serve as a safe base with their parent or caregiver. If children develop insecure attachment with parents, it will make it difficult to trust their own parents and others too and therefore, it would be more likely for them to avoid talking about their feelings as a defense mechanism to not get hurt (Besharat and Khajavi, 2013). Synchrony is an important element to foster a good parent-child bond. For this bond to form between the parent and the child there must be a mutual pattern of attachment behaviours. For this to develop, time and rehearsal is needed. Synchrony is also an important element in empathy development because, the expressed empathy during mother-child conversations would be transferred to other social situations (McDonald & Messinger, n.d.). Marta Santos Pais, a United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children (Ministry for the family and social solidarity, 2016), in The Positive Parenting National Strategic Policy has highlighted that we, as a society pay a hefty price for the maltreatment of children. When certain gaps in development take place, there are consequences for both the individual and society in general. Motivation for studying parental strategies: The idea that we can shape children according to how we make them feel stems from Freud’s idea of psychoanalysis. This involves several psychological theories and therapeutic techniques which eventually transform the child from an “instinct-driven little animal” to an autonomous adult. (Ivar Frønes, 2016). Frønes goes on to say how, family dynamic plays an essential role in all of this through the socialization process. In primary socialization, when developing autonomy and self-determination the child is particularly influenced by normative parental voices which, highlights the importance of parental influence. What makes parenting difficult is that at the age of primary school children, they are usually in opposition to parents and social conventions but at the same time they are combining them in their behavior. Hence, both autonomy and integration are different concepts incorporated in the same process. Psychology was always an area of interest for me and what I have just mentioned sheds light upon parental influence as a vital role. Hence, I have been motivated to delve in further detail and discover the ways in which parents can be of a positive influence over their children. Research Question: What does the research literature tell us about parental discipline styles and strategies and their effect on the development of primary school children? Strengths and limitations: In the Alternative criteria, Guba and Lincoln (2006) mention the different ways in which a study can be authentic. The option which fits my dissertation is ‘The Catalytic’. The intention of my study is to serve as an impetus for change and improvement in the treatment of children especially locally (Bryman, 2012, pp. 384-386). My research question might be a bit ambitious since different children might have different needs. Also, what constitutes goodness is subjective especially to parents who believe that their technique is most effective. Having said that, the ultimate aim of the study is simply guidance. Making parents aware of available research related to up-bringing and the impacts of their roles in the children’s lives ought to serve as an informational guide about positive parenting techniques so they can develop their parenting skills, identify resources which help them understand and meet their children’s needs, and ultimately avoid abusive relationships. Moreover, because this dissertation is based on secondary research, the utilized data might be subjective to the aims of the primary researchers, so it could create a generalizability issue. Methodology: Qualitative Research: Due to the nature of my study, I am expected to interpret the information I obtain from the available literature. The interpretivist approach is an integral part of qualitative research and, interpretivism makes the researcher central to the research because it is up to him to interpret the data. As a result, interpretivism therefore prohibits full objectiveness since all humans have their own personal opinion which will anyhow influence the study. Unlike the subjects studied in the natural sciences, those studied in the social field tell stories, are active, and involve humans therefore these stories would need interpretation from someone that could make sense from the collected data. In this way, conclusions can be made about what was discovered. (Bryman, 2012). Since I have opted for a secondary analysis, I will be reviewing present literature to obtain a better understanding of what is known. Prior to the initiation of my study, I had gathered the relevant literature relating to children’s development and parental styles of discipline, which is relatively contemporary, relevant, and specific to the study. I had also researched about the theoretical background of such a topic to gain a better understanding of how the theories have historically evolved and, what different professionals have had to say about parenting in relation to children’s development. Outline of the Study: Following Chapter 1 of this introduction, I shall progress to Chapter 2 – which contains the used methodology. This chapter entails a thorough account of the strategies used to carry out this extensive literature review such as, the study’s limitations and any ethical considerations. Chapter 3 – The Literature Review will be split into three parts. Each section will extensively review and extract information of relevant research on parental strategies’ impact on child’s development. Chapter 4 - Conclusion and Recommendations will include an amalgamation of this dissertation, an account of the implied theory and policy identified, and recommendations for social policy makers and future research.