Harsh parents raise aggressive kids, study finds

[Ahriman]

Children whose parents used punitive parenting techniques at a young age behaved aggressively, but that problem gradually decreased over if the style of parenting changed, a Statistics Canada study says.

The study looked at punitive-parenting environments of children between 1994 and 2000. Punitive parenting was measured by asking parents how they disciplined their children — including how often they used physical punishment or yelled or shouted at their children if they were misbehaving. It also looked at how often they calmly discussed a problem or talked to their child about more acceptable behaviour.

It found that young children, between two and three years old who lived in punitive environments in 1994 scored 39 per cent higher on a scale of aggressive behaviour such as bullying than children of the same age living in less punitive environments.

It found that "the difference was even more pronounced six years later in 2000, when the children were eight to nine years old."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041025.wparent1025/BNStory/National/

[DebJ]

1. and aggressive kids tend to create harsher parents.

[RainDog]

8. and parents need to learn how to deal with aggression

in children in ways that don't mimic the bad behavior of their children, and instead show them new ways to behave.

Parents are the ones in charge, not the kids.

Parents are the adults, and they can find ways to opt out of a cycle of ineffective responses.

[clydefrand]

2. This is 2004! How could that be LBN?

Haven't we always known this? Isn't that why we have so many repugs in this country? They just keep on breeding more of their kind, BUT they only "do it" for procreation!!! ;-)

[JuniperLea]

3. i strongly disagree

there are too many variables here and too many levels of what might be termed 'punitive'. on the other hand, it's been my experience that parents who try to hard to discuss these issues with youngsters who are at too young an age to understand why it is they misbehave, it only serves to make things worse. i think it's quite alright for a child to understand that a parent is angry with their behavior. explaining the situation is good, no question, but trying to reason with a little one without the child knowing the parent is not happy with behavior does little if any good. i see this all the time. my kids knew full well when they did something unacceptable that i was unhappy about it. no bullies resulted. i'm not saying beat the little buggers:) just in case someone misunderstands!

[Skittles]

4. my ex-boyfriend's dad worked with Bill O'Reilly's dad

sad O'Reilly senior was a real bully

[wtmusic]

5. This is a waste of Canadian taxpayers' money

and painfully obvious.

[AP]

18. I think it's important for people to read this.

[rosalux]

6. harsh parenting

and authoritarian parenting also prepares kids to accept lower class status in life--they become workers who just do what they are told. Children who are reasoned with and allowed to plea their cases to their parents end up becoming leaders. They are also more creative and end up achieving more.

[Krupskaya]

7. This is third-hand...

...but I heard of a study once that backs up what you say. A group of children were allowed to play outside in a yard-like environment. A car drove up with a stranger (one of the people running the study, whom the kids had not seen before) in it, who said, "Get in the car. NOW."

Some kids did. Some kids didn't. The ones who did, the study found, were raised in an environment where they were shut down and not allowed to question the all-powerful parent. The kids who didn't had been taught to evaluate the situation and use their own judgments.

[MisterP]

9. that's fascinating

and all too grim a message for our future

[wryter2000]

13. Welcome to DU, Rosa

:hi:

[RainDog]

10. Dobson no doubt hates this "reality-based" childrearing

rather than faith-based spare the rod bullshit.

[mtnester]

11. Monkey see...

monkey do

NO offense to monkeys intended

[colonel odis]

12. aw hell, sum-a mah best mimries is daddy whupping the sheeyit

outta me. if ah got outta line, he'd take off his belt and whup me till i bled. then he'd pour salt in it just for the hell of it.

it done me a world uh good, too. taught me to be a real man. made me tuff enough to beat the sheeyit outta mah own kids. ewe gotta git tuff with them little 7, 8 year olds. whin thar mental capacity is raht up there with yore's, you gotta whup their little asses.

[bemildred]

14. Today's "No Shit, Sherlock!" award.

Attitude is everything in parenting, and you cannot fake it.

[Mokito]

15. Duh........nt

[yodermon]

16. See:

http://www.psychohistory.com/htm/eln04_trauma.html
"Restaging Early Traumas in War and Social Violence"

http://www.psychohistory.com/htm/eln03_terrorism.html
"The Childhood Origins of Terrorism"

and other articles at www.psychohistory.com

[JSJ]

17. harsh parenting may account for us troop behavior in iraq, elsewhere

[msmcghee]

19. Kids who grow up believing . .

. . the world and the people in it will treat you like shit if they can - become conservatives. If they're bigger than other kids - they become bullies. If they are not big enough - they become like Carl Rove.