THE INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF MATERNAL DISCIPLINE AND STANDARDS FOR BEHAVIOR

Mothers and grandmothers of 3- to 5-year-olds rated their frequency of use of five disciplinary, techniques - physical punishment, withdrawa l of love, explanation, material reward, and praise, described how the y would react in a variety of disciplinary, situations, and rated how stringent they were in demanding appropriate behavior in the areas of obedience, honesty, helping, and control of aggression. Mothers were a sked to respond with reference to their child, and grandmothers with r eference to their daughter, when she was between 3 and 5 years of age. There was a significant correlation between mothers and grandmothers in their use of physical punishment and material reward. Mothers of gi rls who were categorized as power assertive in their responses to disc iplinary situations had mothers who were also power assertive. There w as no relationship between mothers and grandmothers in the standards t hey set for behavior. It is argued that discipline techniques ape gene rally learned in the privacy of the home while standards are more like ly to evolve after a variety of life experiences and that it is this f act that accounts for the relationship between mothers and grandmother s in the former area and nor the latter.