Assess common parenting practices and emerging research about discipline on human growth and development.
Assessment should include
- analyzing short-term and long-term outcomes of guidance, discipline, and/or punishment for children, families, and society
- examining, using case studies, how a child’s misbehavior can be corrected through guidance, discipline, and/or punishment
- evaluating each method as to whether it encourages appropriate behavior and positive long-term characteristics in children.
Process/Skill Questions
Thinking
- What characteristics would you want your children to develop? How do you think you could control this?
- Which do you think is a greater influence: a child’s inherent personality or the child's environment, including methods of parental guidance? Why?
- What factors influence guidance methods used by parents?
Communication
- Where do individuals acquire beliefs and attitudes about guidance, discipline, and punishment?
- What messages do parents send to children when they punish them for misbehavior? What are the short-term effects of punishment on a child? On parents? On society? What are the long-term effects on each?
- What communication skills do parents and children need for guidance and discipline to be effective?
Leadership
- What leadership skills do parents need to provide guidance and discipline to children?
- What parental actions reflect leadership skills?
- What resources are available for parents to learn about parenting styles?
Management
- What factors might influence parents to change their methods of child guidance?
- What resources might parents use to change their methods of child guidance? What factors might prevent parents from changing?