Attitudes to parenting practices and child discipline

The University of South Wales was commissioned by the Welsh Government to undertake focus groups to explore parents' views about parenting practices and approaches to child discipline. MethodFourteen focus groups were conducted in eight local authority areas around Wales with mothers and fathers of children and young people aged between birth and 18 years. Each focus group was semi-structured in nature. Hypothetical scenarios and possible approaches to discipline were presented to all of the focus groups and participants were asked to think about their attitude to each of the approaches, in each of the scenarios.The main findings were:Parents perceive certain sources to have expertise in managing children's behaviours; these include other parents, some care/health education professionals and some TV professionals. They had not considered government sources, such as leaflets, websites and press releases or web-sites in general, as 'expert' sources. Positive parenting was recognised by all of the parents as being the most effective way of managing children's behaviour so interventions might be strategically focused on building the associated skills since the principle is accepted. Parents stated that positive parenting required multiple approaches to manage behaviour. Modelling good behaviour and the use of age - appropriate sanctions were highlighted as forms of proactive practice.