What do parents do when a toddler acts up, and how do different approaches relate to how children fare? According to PsyPost, a study of 865 toddlers across 14 countries offers cross-cultural clues.
Mothers who more often shouted, hit or took away privileges reported more behavioural and emotional problems in their children. Time-outs, and asking children to reflect on what they had done, showed no such link.
The cross-national design is the study's strength: the same pattern appearing in 14 countries suggests it is not a quirk of one culture.
Two cautions apply. The study is correlational, so it cannot show that harsh discipline causes the problems; children who are harder to manage may draw harsher responses, or the two may feed each other. And the children's problems were reported by their mothers, whose own mood and expectations can colour such reports.
For family support programmes, the findings point to teaching parents workable alternatives rather than only telling them what to avoid.
