Perceptions on discipline of 5-year-olds among coresident mothers and grandmothers: Evidence from Chile

• In Event: How grandparents in China, Chile and the United States influence children’s development

Abstract

Introduction
This study contrasts mothers’ and grandmothers’ perceptions of discipline a child experiences from adults in the same household, comparing them by family organization (i.e., grandmother is majority caregiver or not) and grandmother educational level.

Hypotheses
We hypothesize there will be significant differences in the reported practices by mothers and grandmothers because generational beliefs and assumed responsibilities imply discipline practices are not always perceived by other family members. These differences will be driven by conflicting reports of mothers and grandmothers in families with majority caregiving grandmothers, since they do not share caregiving responsibilities simultaneously with the mother. Therefore, they likely do not witness the other’s caregiver practices. We do not expect differences to be driven by educational level.

Study methods
This study uses a mixed-methods approach.
Quantitative study. A subset of families of 5-year-olds in which the grandmother lived in the household and was indicated as the secondary caregiver (n=77) was selected from 2017’s Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ELPI), a Chilean nationally representative survey. Both mothers and grandmothers individually reported which discipline practices were used by them or any other adult in the household with the target child in the last month. We created dummy variables for each of these practices. Using paired samples t-tests, we compared mother and grandmother reports.
Qualitative study. Interviews (m=45 minutes) were conducted with Chilean mothers (n=11) and grandmothers (n=9) from the same families.

Results
A higher percentage of mothers than grandmothers reported using each disciplining practice, except for “did nothing.” These results are consistent with the qualitative data: mothers and grandmothers agreed that the person in charge of rule setting (including the consequences for breaking said rules) were the mothers.

There were significant differences in the reported discipline practices between mothers and grandmothers for half of the practices. Contrary to what we expected, these differences seem to be driven by discrepancies with non-majority caregiving grandmothers (Table 1). Interview data reveals that grandmothers only take disciplining action if the child’s parents are absent. However, majority caregiving grandmothers felt that, as child caregivers, they must discipline the child if needed, reporting to the mother about their child’s misbehavior and disciplining received. This communication with the child’s mother might have decreased the discordance in perceived discipline.

Finally, we observed discrepancies in the report of time out, shouting at the child, and spanking with the hand among both high- and low- educated grandmothers (Table 2).

Authors

• Monica Zegers, University of California - San Francisco
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Reynolds, University of California, Berkeley