An increasing number of parents realize that the violent child discipline practices are not efficient and have negative effects on the parent-child relationship, shows a study carried out by the Institute for Marketing and Polls MAS-INC Chisinau in partnership with UNICEF. Despite these perceptions, most of the parents who took part in the study admitted to having slapped their child at least once, IPN reports.
In a news conference on May 12, IMAS corporate communication director Elena Petrutsi said the interviewed parents said they do not know how to discuss particular problems with their children even if they want this and admit that they have feelings of regret after they use violent child discipline methods.
The study showed that when the children are disobedient, the parents feel anger and impotency. On the one hand, anger appears because the parents’ authority is not respected. On the other hand, the parents feel powerless because they not always know how to react to their children’s behavior. The largest part of the respondents were punished by their parents and even by their teachers when they were young. The parents approved of the education model based on non-violent education methods, but consider that not many patents use such methods.
There were also surveyed specialists who come into contact with the families, such as doctors, teachers, social workers, priests and other local opinion leaders. According to these, the parents resort to violence because they lack information, lack time and have a low education level. It is interesting that the specialists tend to reduce the size of violence, saying the number of violent families in their settlement is low - 1-2% of all the families. This shows that the phenomenon of violence and its negative effects on the child are not fully comprehended by the parents and specialists.
Chief of the UNICEF Moldova Child Protection Program Frauke de Kort said Moldova made process in adopting legislation on child protection. Now the specialists from these fields must be trained to meet these requirements and to identify the vulnerable parents and children who need help. The parents can be calm and intelligent and can serve as an example for the others because it is not hard to speak and listen to the children, to stimulate them and praise them for good deeds.
The results of the study “Social norms influencing violent practices in child disciplining” will be used by the national authorities and civil society organizations to work out policies and programs in the area of child protection and will support the communication with parents and educators with a view to preventing abusive disciplinary practices.
