Mothers of toddlers negotiate, bargain, coax, reason, instruct, warn, command, reprimand, use diversions or distractions, physically intervene, and concede. Parenting styles in a child's early years influence whether these early and common types of misbehavior develop into patterns predictive of more serious problems later (Baumrind, 1967). Unfortunately, most of what is known about the "best" ways to discipline toddlers is surmised from correlational studies that do not allow causal conclusions to be drawn. Correlational research is useful for identifying disciplinary approaches that may be associated with behavior problems, but experimental research that evaluates the comparative effects of different strategies is needed to develop clear guidelines for parents.
The purpose of the present investigation, therefore, was to compare the efficacy of two commonly used strategies for controlling toddler behavior: distraction and reprimands. Distraction refers to diverting a child's attention from an undesirable activity by suggesting an appropriate behavior. For example, if a child starts to play with the VCR, the mother may ask the child to play with blocks on the floor. Reprimands express the mother's disapproval of a child's behavior and are often accompanied with instructions or commands to cease the behavior. In the scenario described above, the mother may reprimand by saying, "No! Stop touching the VCR." These two strategies were selected for comparison primarily because parents use them frequently. Minton et al. (1971) found that reprimands were the most common responses to child transgressions, whereas Schaffer and Crook (1979) found that mothers used distraction much more frequently than reprimands. Correlational research suggests that reprimands are more effective than distraction. Kuczynski, Kochanska, Radke-Yarrow, and Girnius-Brown (1987) reported a positive correlation between mothers' use of reprimands, but not distraction, and toddlers' compliance. Moreover, the use of reprimands was negatively correlated with children's negotiation attempts while distraction was positively correlated with passive noncompliance in toddlers, suggesting that children tend to be more resistant when mothers use distraction than when they use reprimands. Furthermore, this toddler resistance was correlated with passive noncompliance and mother-perceived externalizing behavior problems in the children at age 5. (Kuczynski, Kochanska, & Maguire, 1989).
A pilot study with a sample (N = 10) of mother-toddler dyads comparing reprimands and distractions suggested that children misbehave less when mothers reprimand initially than when they use distraction initially (Wolff, Street, O'Leary, & Pfiffner, 1989). When distractions followed reprimands, distractions were as effective as reprimands. When reprimands followed a period of distraction, child negative affect in response to the reprimands was high. Because of the small sample size and chance differences between the two groups in the pilot study, the current study replicated the pilot procedures with a new and larger sample.
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ـ[عطوان عويضة]ــــــــ[17 - 03 - 2009, 07:41 ص]ـ
جزاك الله خيرا ..
وإياك، إن شاء الله.
((لكن ما اسمك قبل أبو عبد القيوم؟؟؟))
أبو عبد الرحمن.:)
هذا يشجعني أن أطلب منكم ترجمة باقى النص ..
سأوافيك بها قريبا، إن شاء الله.