Maternal disciplinary practices in an at-risk population

Objectives: To describe maternal discipline of children in at-risk families and to determine factors associated with disciplinary practices. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: At-risk families in North Carolina followed up in a longitudinal s tudy of child maltreatment. Participants: Maternal caregivers of 7- to 9-year-old children with factors at birth that placed them at risk. Measurements and Results: A total of 186 maternal caregivers were interview ed. A measure, based on coding parental responses, was used to assess disci plinary practices for 5 different misbehaviors. Limit setting was the most commonly used disciplinary practice for 4 of 5 misbehaviors, with 63% of mo thers reporting that this method generally worked best. Spanking was more l ikely used as a secondary response for each misbehavior. when the primary o ne had not succeeded. Conversely, teaching or verbal assertion was always l ess likely as a secondary response. Teaching or verbal assertion was used m ore commonly for lying than for any other misbehavior, limit setting for di sobeying, spanking for stealing, and spanking with an object for being disr espectful. Regression modeling for the 4 most common disciplinary practices showed (P < .05) that black race, lack of Aid to Families With Dependent C hildren receipt, more-educated mothers, and female sex of child were associ ated with higher use of teaching or verbal assertion; a biological father i n the home was associated with less use of limit setting; and black race an d report for child maltreatment were associated with more use of mild spank ing. Conclusions: In this sample, limit setting was the most common disciplinary technique. Disciplinary practices used varied depending on the type of mis behavior and other contextual factors, including child, parent, and family characteristics.