Psychometric Evaluation of a Brief Assessment of Parents’ Disciplinary Alternatives

Abstract

Objectives: The majority of strategies designed to assess parental discipline practices typically focus on ineffective or adverse discipline options. When more comprehensive measures are utilized, parents are often expressly asked to report their use of nonphysical discipline options but such an approach signals to parents that they should report implementing such choices, thereby rendering it susceptible to social desirability. Methods: Rather than cueing parents with possible discipline options, the Production of Discipline Alternatives (PDA) is a very brief parent-report coding scheme of the discipline options parents freely generate to an open-ended question after reading a short vignette. The current study investigated the inter-rater reliability and stability as well as concurrent and predictive validity from the coding of this brief qualitative prompt using three waves of longitudinal data collected from mothers and fathers (prenatally, child age 6 months, and child age 18 months). Results: Findings demonstrated strong inter-rater reliability (between independent coders) and stability of discipline alternatives provided by parents across nearly two years. Concurrent and predictive validity were also observed; specifically, mothers and fathers who generated proportionally more physical discipline options were more likely to approve of physical discipline, to be inclined to punish perceived misbehavior, to prefer authoritarian parenting approaches, to evidence greater child abuse risk, and to report more frequent use of physical discipline. Conclusions: The current findings imply the PDA may have research utility as well as potential value in screenings at primary and integrated care settings relevant for prevention and intervention efforts.

Phenomenological study: parenting experiences by mothers of domestic violence victims

“…Physical punishment given by mothers to children who make mistakes or negative behavior in the form of hitting or pinching. Corporal punishment is believed by some to be more effective for disciplining children and helping children understand the consequences of their negative behavior (27,28).…”

Talking to Parents about Spanking: The Potential for Pediatricians to Reduce the Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences

“…In fact, single-item tools can be used to assess parents' knowledge of disciplinary options that predict their risk for abuse. 21 Brief training programs also have been developed to guide health care professionals in discussing positive parenting with their patients. 22 Parents are often unfamiliar with the science on spanking effects, yet many professionals hesitate to discuss spanking with parents.…”