ABSTRACT
The ways in which parents discipline their children have for centuries aroused the attention of philosophers and social historians. To the literature on the ethics and logic of discipline and its application in various eras (e.g., DeMause, 1974; Locke, 1913), psychologists have added investigations of the effectiveness of discipline (Parke, 1970; Walters & Grusec, 1977), the factors involved in parents’ choice of discipline (Dix & Grusec, 1985; Zahn-Waxler & Chapman, 1982), and the consequences of various forms of discipline on the child (Becker, 1964). Much less is known about the child’s experience of discipline and punishment. A few diaries (cf. DeMause, 1974) and clinical records (e.g., Kempe & Kempe, 1978) describe how individual children view parental discipline, but few empirical studies (Halperin, 1981; Herzberger, Potts, & Dillon, 1981) have investigated the issue. Most of our knowledge about children’s perceptions of discipline is indirect, and is inferred from studies of parents’ behavior, the home environment, and the effects of discipline upon the child’s behavior.
