Parents who discipline their children by shouting rather than reasoning with them can create further discipline problems, new research suggests.
Presented to the Royal Economic Society annual conference, a study by the London School of Economics found that excessive shouting and the issuing of harsh punishments is counterproductive to tackling bad behaviour in children.
Ignoring children was also revealed to be a factor contributing to deteriorating discipline standards.
Almost 19,000 children born in the first two years of the millennium were analysed in the study and data was collected from parents just before children’s first birthday, then when they turned three, five and seven.
Interviews took place with school teachers and older siblings, an assessment was also conducted into the impact of various styles of parenting on children.
Ultimately it was found that the mother’s parenting style “mainly influences the mental health of the child”, whilst “excessive shouting, punishing or ignoring a naughty child” in particular increases their behavioural problems.
Generally it was agreed by researchers that “reasoning with children” is more likely to have a positive impact on their behaviour at a young age.
In a statement they said:
“In this group, externalising behavioural problems are reduced when mothers read to the child, and increased when mothers shout at the child when naughty, take treats away, or ignore the naughty child.”
In some cases, it may be pent-up anger that causes parents to shout at their children when they misbehave. Discovering anger management through hypnotherapy can help control rage and may even lead to more reasoned parenting. To find out more, please see our hypnotherapy for anger management page.
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