Parental disciplinary style - NSW Commission for Children and Young People

What does this mean?

In Kids Stats parental disciplinary style refers to the way parents use their knowledge, strategies and skills to guide their children and maintain rules and standards.

Why is it important to monitor?

Effective parenting helps children and young people learn communication skills, problem solving techniques, social rules of behaviour and can foster closer relationships between the parent and child.

The type of discipline style used by parents has been found to be associated with many well-being outcomes for children and young people [1]. Most parents’ disciplinary style includes a combination of reasoning, reinforcement and punishment.

Four common parental disciplinary styles have been identified from previous research undertaken in Western Australia in 1993 [2]. These are:

encouraging
inconsistent
neutral
coercive.

The research found that the ‘encouraging’ style was the most common pattern of parenting (49% of parents), with the ‘coercive’ style the least common (5% of parents). The research also found increased rates of mental health problems for children exposed to coercive or inconsistent disciplinary styles.

Indicator

Information on parents' disciplinary style is not routinely collected in NSW. This is an area for future development.

Notes:
[1] Parcel, T. L. & E. G. Menaghan. (1994). Early Parental Work, Family Social Capital, and Early Childhood Outcomes. American Journal of Sociology, 99, 972-1009
[2] Silburn, S.R., Zurbrick, S.R., Garton, A., Gurrin, L., Burton, P., Dalby, R., Carlton, J., Shepherd, C., & Lawrence, D. (1996). Western Australian Child Health Survey: Family and Community Health. Australian Bureau of Statistics and the TVW Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Perth.

For details of the references and to find out more about the data follow the link to Glossary and further information