@conference{
author = "Videnović, Marina and Krstić, Ksenija and Rajić, Milana and Radanović, Ana",
year = "2023",
abstract = "The Theory of Planned Behavior suggests that parents’ perceived social norms and
expectations regarding corporal punishment (CP) use might be linked to their attitudes
and disciplinary choices. Research supports this prediction as so perceived norms
regarding CP use are associated with parents’ attitudes. The focus of this study is
mothers' discipline practice and its relation to perceived social norms of early childhood
parenting. Other studies from Serbia show the first use of CP is around the child’s
second year. Therefore, early childhood is a high time for prevention attempts toward
changing parents’ attitudes and practices. The sample includes 413 mothers of 18-35
months old children from six Serbian municipalities. This research is a combination of
qualitative and quantitative methodological approach. Mothers have reported which of
13 discipline practices, they used in the last month (for example, explaining, yelling,
spanking, shaking) when children misbehave. Also, after a focus group with parents, we
identified social norms of parenting practice during early development. A ten-items fivedegree scale was constructed to assess mothers’ perceived social norms of other
parents and their agreement with them. Cluster analysis (Ward’s method, squared
Euclidean distance) shows three existing clusters that fit with the data study of
discipline practices. Chi-square analysis was used to define the extracted group. The first
group of mothers used only explanations as discipline practice in the situation of
misbehaving. Most of the respondents in the second group agreed with the statement
that their child is too little for any form of discipline (64% compared to 6-3% in other
groups). Finally, the third group used explanation but also inclined more than others
toward violent verbal, such as yelling (93%) and physical disciplining, such as spanking
(45%). These mothers perceived two descriptive norms as more available in their
surrounding compared to the others: 1. the belief that corporal punishment is necessary
for disciplining two-three years old children (F(2, 392) = 12.47, p = .000, Sheffe test, p <
.01) and 2. The belief that babies should be left to cry out, to avoid spoiling them F(2,
393) = 7.77, p = .000, Sheffe test, p < .01). Participants from the second group have
stronger belifes that the mother's role is mostly to take care of the baby while fathers
should dedicate themselves to work (F(2, 378) = 6.19, p = .002, Sheffe test, p < .01) and
that being a good mother mean being committed completely to a child (F(2, 378) = 6.19,
p = .002, Sheffe test, p < .,01). Despite the body of research pointing to the negative side of CP, our results reveal that a group of mothers start to use this form of discipline
during a child’s early development. Their behaviour is supported by social norms from
the surroundings. The study highlighted that changing toward less violent discipline
practices should include debagging the false beliefs about child-rearing behaviour.",
publisher = "Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad",
journal = "Book of abstracts, Current Trends in psychology, Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, October 26-28",
title = "Mother’s discipline practices and social norms of early development, Disciplinske prakse majki i društvene norme ranog razvoja",
pages = "77-76",
url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_5505"
}
