DISCIPLINING CHILDREN:
RESEARCH WITH PARENTS IN SCOTLAND

Simon Anderson and Lorraine Murray
NFO System Three Social Research

Julie Brownlie
Stirling University

2002

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Contents

Executive Summary
A. Introduction
Existing literature
Research methods
Structure of the report
B. Discipline in context: perceptions
of parenting and family life
Introduction
‘There’s no routine anymore’: changes in the structure
of family life
‘They want so much more now’: meeting family
expectations
Impact of pressures on parenting
‘When your dad stood up, you knew it was time
to back down’: changes in the relationship between
adults and children
‘You're constantly scared that big brother's watching
you’: parental accountability and anxiety
‘Nobody can tell you how to be a parent’: influences
on parenting style
Key points
C. Discipline: perceptions and behaviour
Introduction
‘You used to get walloped’: Continuities and discontinuities
in parental discipline over time
‘Folk who say they have never done it, well, I can’t believe
it’: perceptions of other people’s use of smacking
Parental behaviours: actual use of different forms of
chastisement
Key points
D. Smacking: orientations, situations and justifications
Introduction
General attitudes towards smacking
Situations
Explanations and justifications
Smacking to signal danger
‘Nobody wants to smack their children’: the construction
of smacking as a tactic of ‘last resort’
‘You lose it sometimes’: smacking and stress
Perceived influences on likelihood to use smacking
‘I’ve never smacked them and not regretted it’: parental
reactions to smacking
‘Smacking for other people’: parenting in public
Alternatives to smacking
Age and appropriateness
Perceptions of effectiveness
Attitudes towards non-parental physical chastisement
Key points
E. Awareness and views of possible
changes in the law
Introduction
‘You cannae smack them once they turn three’: perceptions
and misperceptions of the current law and the proposed legislation
Arguments against the proposed ban on smacking children
under three
Perceptions of how a ban would affect parental behaviour
Attitudes towards other aspects of the legislation
Key points
F. Conclusions
Situating discussions about discipline and chastisement
Inter-generational continuities and change
Ambivalence in attitudes towards smacking
Smacking situations
Understanding of and attitudes towards the law
Parenting culture, discipline and the state
Appendix A — Research methods
Appendix B - Bibliography

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