THE DEATH OF DISCIPLINE - IS THE REQUIEM PREMATURE

There is a current trend among one sector of the professional mental-h ealth community against the use of confrontive discipline with childre n and toward a positive-only approach to child behavior management. Th e current paper addresses this position by providing an overview of fa mily process research as well as parent training outcome research rela ted to parent disciplinary (punishment) practices. Consistent with res earch from developmental psychology showing that ''authoritative'' par enting is associated with the best developmental outcomes, this overvi ew concludes that child management which combines positive approaches with age appropriate structures, limits, and non-hostile, nonviolent p unishment is associated with the best treatment outcomes. The paper ch allenges positions calling for an end to the use of punishment with ch ildren. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.