I found this section of my study quite time consuming, as I hadn’t really considered previously how I was going to go about dividing my respondents into sections. Luckily I had enough volunteers to enable me to divide each group up successfully and therefore hand out a fairly well balanced questionnaire.
When it came to designing my questionnaire I decided to look into previous research, which were suitably related to my topic of study. However I found this a little more challenging than I first imagined. I read through many textbooks and I couldn’t find any studies that were even related to mine. I then decided to search the Internet and luckily found a study, which was conducted in Scotland on Scottish parents by Simon Anderson and Lorraine Murray. Although it wasn’t directly related to my area of study I did find it useful. The piece of work I found was based mainly on the answers they had received from the parents in Scotland but it did open up my eyes to questions that I hadn’t previously thought of such as questions based on the education of the respondent and the respondents parents and also previous childhood experiences of physical discipline.
I think including questions relating to childhood experiences was a good idea as my aim was to identify whether the views of physical discipline used on young children has changed over generations of parents and non-parents. These sorts of questions help me to retrieve not only the opinion of the respondent but I am also able to gain an insight into the way in which the parents’ opinions were at that point in their life. This is useful in itself as the parents of the respondents will be of an older generation and may well have the same opinions as the older generations who took part in my questionnaire.
Whilst conducting my questionnaire I found it fairly difficult to word my questions. Due to the sensitivity of the subject I had chosen to study it was very important to consider ethics. With each and every question I had to think of many different ways in which to word them and then choose one that I felt was appropriate. This however was time consuming and quite complicated. Looking back at my questionnaire I think I may have portrayed some of my own opinions on physical punishment within some questions such as: - “When you were a child, did your mother or father ever use physical punishment, like smacking, slapping, ear twisting or hitting you in some other way?” Here you can see that I have used my own opinions on what classes as physical punishment within the question.
I also think that the subject I chose to study is quite difficult and challenging. Due to the lack of sociological research on this specific area it was very difficult to relate any of my findings to previous conducted studies, which is a major area of my coursework.
Another problem that I encountered was trying to find the right number of females and males and parents and non-parents. I new that at the beginning I had to have a reasonably equal number of males and females both of the older generation and younger generation in each section (parents and non-parents). This was a very difficult task in itself and took up quite a lot of my time.
I did find that questions that asked the respondent to talk about their personal views on physical discipline and areas related to this were not as successful as straightforward questions, which did not ask you to comment.
All in all I found my questionnaires quite effective and I managed to retrieve the information that was important to my study. Although it did take up a lot of my time I think that it was quite successful.
Due to the fact that I was advised not to conduct over 15 questionnaires I have found it difficult to separate all the different categories such as parents/non-parents etc.
My opening question within my questionnaire asked the respondent if they agreed or disagreed with physical discipline used on young children.
Graph 1.
Here are the results of graph 1:
Female 48+:
- 50% Strongly Disagree
- 50% Agree
Female –48:
- 66% Strongly Disagree
- 34% Agree
Male 48+:
- 34% Strongly Disagree
- 33% Agree
- 33% Strongly Agree
- 60% Strongly Disagree
- 40% Disagree
The results show that 43% of the male and female ‘48+’ section disagree with physical discipline used on young children whereas 57% of the male and female ‘48+’ section agree with it. This supports my idea that the older generation, both male and female, may have more of a positive view on physical discipline towards children.
The results also show that 87% of the male and female ‘-48’ section disagree with physical discipline and only 13% agree with it. This also supports my idea that the younger generation may feel more negatively about this physical discipline on young children.
I thought it would be interesting to find out what possible effects physical punishment from parents could have had my respondents.
I asked the respondents “When you were a child, did your mother or father ever use physical punishment, like smacking, slapping, ear twisting or hitting you in some other way?” Here are the results:
As you can see 50%of the group ‘female 48+’ experienced some form of physical discipline when they were a child, whereas 50%% did not.
100% of the group ‘female –48’ experienced some sort of physical discipline.
The graph shows that 67% of the group ‘male 48+’ experienced physical discipline as a child and 33% did not.
60% of the ‘male –48’ group experienced physical discipline whereas 40% did not.
Although there is a widespread view that, in general, parents are less ‘strict’ than in earlier eras and that physical discipline is both less common and less severe than it once was, current parents are more likely to see continuity than difference when comparing their parents’ and their own approaches to discipline.
Unfortunately only 34% of my respondents were parents of children under 20 but I thought I would still see if I could find any kind of relationship between the kind of discipline they received from their parents and the kind they use on their children.
As you can see 4 (80%) of the 5 parents received some kind of physical discipline from their parents. Only 2 (40%) of them said that they do not use physical discipline on their own children and one of those two did not receive physical discipline as a child. The remaining 3 (60%) parents do however.
My results certainly suggest that parents who were smacked as children are significantly more likely than those who were not to use physical chastisement with their own children. In my opinion the results I have received show a significant change in recent decades in the general relationship between children and adults. Children are now more assertive than in the past and less automatically accepting of adult authority.
Within my research I asked my respondents which methods of discipline they found acceptable.
Within this question I decided to use examples of discipline that were, in my opinion, either quite extreme or not so extreme. As you can see the two ‘extreme’ levels of discipline were only favoured by 7% of my respondents whereas 93% of the respondents agreed that ‘grounding’ a child was acceptable. Only 13% agreed that it was acceptable to not allow a child part of a meal. All of the respondents agreed that it was ok to use some other form of punishment such as stopping the child doing something they enjoy doing. Having carried out my research I found that 60% of the respondents appeared to agree that reasonable chastisement such as a light smacking on the hand or bottom being used on children was acceptable however anything more than this was considered intolerable.
66% of respondents agreed that parents should be allowed, by law, to smack a naughty child who is over 5 years of age. 53% agreed that the law should allow parents to smack a naughty child who is over 2 years old. 13% believed that the law should allow parents to smack a naughty child who is less than 2 years old. 40% believed that parents should have the right to smack a child whatever the age.
Within the last two years there has been a major concern in relation to the law in the UK regarding physical chastisement. The existing common law defence of "reasonable chastisement" creates a situation, which allows parents or carers to inflict punishments upon children. There are over 10 states, which have already made it illegal to use any form of physical discipline on young children. 66% of the respondents disagreed that Britain should make any form of physical discipline illegal whereas 34% agreed.
My results showed that only 40% of my respondents new what reasonable chastisement actually meant. 13% even thought it meant a form of verbal discipline.
Although there is some evidence of change over time in the unacceptability of many forms of physical chastisement, my research indicates that specific use of smacking remains deeply fixed in parenting culture. But it would be naive to characterise parental attitudes as overwhelmingly or straightforwardly pro-smacking. The most common attitude is one of ambivalence - recognising that smacking can have negative consequences and that there are better ways of dealing with most situations but nevertheless concluding that sometimes children simply ‘need a smack’.
The fact that smacking typically takes place in the home and appears to be a highly charged interaction which leaves parents feeling guilty or upset raises questions about how amenable such responses are likely to be to modification through law alone.
Conclusion and Evaluation
“My hypothesis is that people of a younger generation will think negatively about physical discipline towards children unlike an older generation who may think it is a positive step in order to fulfil high levels of discipline in their children.”
I began my study with this hypothesis and I believe that I have proved it. With the information that I have acquired from my questionnaire I can give evidence that a proportion of the younger generations of today think negatively about physical discipline whereas the older generations look at it as a positive step. However from other information I have retrieved from my questionnaires I also believe that physical discipline is still deeply embedded in parenting culture.
At the beginning of my project I don’t think that I had thoroughly thought through the amount of time and hard work I would have to put in order to achieve maximum results. Whilst in the process of designing my questionnaire I realised that there were many more questions to be asked in order to gain the answers and results I was hoping for. However the end results that I achieved were of a high standard and were what I was hoping for.
I chose to use questionnaires for my study as they produce data that can be easily compared. Questionnaires are also reliable as the results can be carried out again to make a comparison over time. I think that all my questions were clear and easy to understand. However I did realise that I may have input some of my own opinions whilst constructing the questionnaire, which means they may have been leading and subsequently made my respondents possibly answer in a different way. Another weakness of my study is that I asked some recall questions which expect the respondent to have a very good memory of past events. A strength of my study was that I managed to structure my questionnaire quite well so that each section of differing questions were under a clear, understandable heading. The questionnaire also included some closed questions as well as open questions, which made it possible to discover a correlation between two or more variables. Some of the minor set backs that occurred such as the wording, and time did not have any effect on the reliability and validity of my study.
I think that overall my questionnaire was easily understandable and clear to each respondent. I included a section at the end of the questionnaire in which the respondent could add any comments or questions in order for me to learn from. I felt this was very important as the respondent plays a big part in a study such as this and all suggestions are welcome. Luckily I found that none of my respondents had any complaints referring my questionnaire so I am hoping that everyone was happy with my work.
I think that if I were to do the research again I would possibly use a different sample in order to gain access to the right groups. Having looked at the study by Simon Anderson and Lorraine Murray (NFO System Three Social Research), which was conducted in Scotland on a much larger scale, I think it would have been a lot easier if I had looked specifically at just parents of younger and older generations.
I think that there is a large possibility that other sociologists could carry out a study similar to this and achieve outstanding results. Due to different aspects such as time, space etc it was not possible for me to achieve exceptional results. Looking back I think that there are some aspects that I left unexplored such as changes in the structure of family life and also the impact of pressures on parenting. It may have also been helpful to explore the changes in the relationship between adults and children and maybe perceptions of other people’s use of smacking.
There are plenty of subjects which looking back I feel I have missed out. I cannot say whether having included the above would make an immense difference however it would certainly be interesting to find out.
It was extremely difficult to find other sociologists and studies relating to this specific topic and I believe that this is the biggest weakness of my study. Even looking at topics such as ‘The family’ and even ‘Abuse’ I could still not find anything related to physical discipline used on young children.
Looking back at the work that I have completed I am pleased with the result. I have learnt from my mistakes and feel that if I were to go back and do it all again then I would achieve higher results and possibly retrieve some very insightful information helpful statistics.
Conclusion and Evaluation
“My hypothesis is that people of a younger generation will think negatively about physical discipline towards children unlike an older generation who may think it is a positive step in order to fulfil high levels of discipline in their children.”
I began my study with this hypothesis and I believe that I have proved it. With the information that I have acquired from my questionnaire I can give evidence that a proportion of the younger generations of today think negatively about physical discipline whereas the older generations look at it as a positive step. However from other information I have retrieved from my questionnaires I also believe that physical discipline is still deeply embedded in parenting culture.
At the beginning of my project I don’t think that I had thoroughly thought through the amount of time and hard work I would have to put in order to achieve maximum results. Whilst in the process of designing my questionnaire I realised that there were many more questions to be asked in order to gain the answers and results I was hoping for. However the end results that I achieved were of a high standard and were what I was hoping for.
I chose to use questionnaires for my study as they produce data that can be easily compared. Questionnaires are also reliable as the results can be carried out again to make a comparison over time. I think that all my questions were clear and easy to understand. However I did realise that I may have input some of my own opinions whilst constructing the questionnaire, which means they may have been leading and subsequently made my respondents possibly answer in a different way. Another weakness of my study is that I asked some recall questions which expect the respondent to have a very good memory of past events. A strength of my study was that I managed to structure my questionnaire quite well so that each section of differing questions were under a clear, understandable heading. The questionnaire also included some closed questions as well as open questions, which made it possible to discover a correlation between two or more variables. Some of the minor set backs that occurred such as the wording, and time did not have any effect on the reliability and validity of my study.
I think that overall my questionnaire was easily understandable and clear to each respondent. I included a section at the end of the questionnaire in which the respondent could add any comments or questions in order for me to learn from. I felt this was very important as the respondent plays a big part in a study such as this and all suggestions are welcome. Luckily I found that none of my respondents had any complaints referring my questionnaire so I am hoping that everyone was happy with my work.
I think that if I were to do the research again I would possibly use a different sample in order to gain access to the right groups. Having looked at the study by Simon Anderson and Lorraine Murray (NFO System Three Social Research), which was conducted in Scotland on a much larger scale, I think it would have been a lot easier if I had looked specifically at just parents of younger and older generations.
I think that there is a large possibility that other sociologists could carry out a study similar to this and achieve outstanding results. Due to different aspects such as time, space etc it was not possible for me to achieve exceptional results. Looking back I think that there are some aspects that I left unexplored such as changes in the structure of family life and also the impact of pressures on parenting. It may have also been helpful to explore the changes in the relationship between adults and children and maybe perceptions of other people’s use of smacking.
There are plenty of subjects which looking back I feel I have missed out. I cannot say whether having included the above would make an immense difference however it would certainly be interesting to find out.
It was extremely difficult to find other sociologists and studies relating to this specific topic and I believe that this is the biggest weakness of my study. Even looking at topics such as ‘The family’ and even ‘Abuse’ I could still not find anything related to physical discipline used on young children.
Looking back at the work that I have completed I am pleased with the result. I have learnt from my mistakes and feel that if I were to go back and do it all again then I would achieve higher results and possibly retrieve some very insightful information helpful statistics.
