Effective discipline involves the use of negative consequences, including reasoning as well as modest levels of power assertion, to discourage unacceptable behavior. A brief history of changing views of discipline is presented and recent positions outlined. Successful discipline requires the imposition of clear and consistent rules, autonomy support, perspective-taking, and acceptance rather than rejection of the child. There are different kinds of negative consequences that are evaluated differently by children as well as having different effects on their behavior. In addition, there are individual differences in how children react to a specific form of discipline, and parents need to be aware of what those differences are. Cultural research underlines the fact that the meaning children assign to specific parenting actions is crucial in determining discipline success. When discipline is seen as normative, fair, and a sign of caring its form, within limits, is less important.

Mindful parenting programs, providing mindfulness training for parents and caregivers, have been gaining increasing attention in recent years. Parents participating in these programs have reported benefits in emotional awareness, listening, and parent-child relationships at post-intervention.Considering that many mindful parenting programs aim to train parents generally, rather than specifically targeting parents of clinic-referred or diagnosed children, it is necessary to ascertain the impact of these programs in non-clinical samples. In the present qualitative review, databases were searched for studies that reported on children's outcomes following mindful parenting programs for parents of typically developing, not clinically-diagnosed children. A synthesis of selected papers (n=6) demonstrated promising but limited impact of mindful parenting programs on children's psychosocial functioning.Differences emerged across programs in themes and mindfulness elements covered. Results demonstrate a need for more rigorous and multi-informant research on the preventative implications of mindful parenting programs in non-clinical contexts for child functioning.

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