Mother's Corporal Punishment Perceived by Children and Children's Anger Expression

초록

Four hundred children aged twelve to thirteen-year-olds were asked to answer a set of self-reporting questionnaire. They were chosen because these ages are known to be prone to their opinions and starting to show resistance against their parents’ disciplines. Chung’s questionnaire (1993) were used to ask about the use of corporal punishment at home and Children’s Anger Expression Scales developed by Park (1998) were used to measure children’s inward and outward anger expression. The CAES consisted of 25 items each rated with five point rating scales (never feel this way:1 to always feel this way:5). Most children had experiences of corporal punishment and they reported to get corporally punished less than five times a months. Children thought that they were punished due to their own wrong doings, but they preferred verbal discipline rather than physical punishment. Boys were more corporally punished in frequency than girls and they preferred physical types of punishment where as girls preferred punishments such as time out. Both boys and girls tended to express their anger inwardly such as by being alone, showing long faces, and feeling sad. They felt strong anger when mothers punish them without proper explanation and in front of other family members. Girls expressed their anger more strongly than boys when mothers use corporal punishment and they rather wanted mothers to ignore the situation or use verbal methods instead of corporal punishment. They also cared more about the frequency of corporal punishment than boys.