NASHVILLE, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Almost one-third of U.S. parents say they don't think their methods of disciplining children are working very well, a study found.
The study, published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics, found a strong association between the discipline parents experienced as children and the methods they reported using with their own children.
Forty-five percent reported using time-outs, 41.5 percent reported using removal of privileges, 13 percent reported yelling at their children, and 8.5 percent reported the use of spanking "often or always," according to study author Shari Barkin of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
"There was actually an inverse relationship between self-reports of yelling at children and perceived effectiveness of discipline," Barkin said. "But we strongly suspect that both yelling and spanking might be underreported, because we know when parents perceive their methods are not working, as a third reported, then emotions can quickly escalate."
Thirty-eight percent of the parents reported using the same methods of discipline as their parents, but those who reported using the same methods as their parents often considered their approach "ineffective."
