Parenting Discipline and Children's Problem Behaviors and Social Competency in Korean-American Families

Thursday, 20 July 2006
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Thursday, 20 July 2006
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Yuqing Guo, MSN¹, Eunjung Kim, PhD, RN, CPNP¹, and Chin-Kang Koh, MSN, RN². (1) Family and Child Nursing, School of Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA, (2) Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Systems, School of Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

Aims: The goal of this study was to examine the relation between Korean American parenting discipline and children’s problem behaviors and social competency. Methods: The exploratory correlational design was used in this study. Fifty-eight Korean American mothers and twenty fathers of children aged from 3 to 8 participated in this study. Self-report data were collected with the Parenting Practices Interview, the Eyeberg Child Behavior Inventory, and the Child Social Competence Scale.
Results: The paternal harsh discipline significantly predicted the children’s problem behavior (FD (1, 13) = 10.51, ß = .56, R²D =.30, p < .01). Regarding the specific parenting strategies of children’s misbehaviors, the maternal ‘correcting’ was positively correlated with the children’s social competence (r = .41, p < .01). The paternal ‘spanking’ was positively correlated with the children’s problem behaviors (r = .74, p < .001). Regarding the specific parenting strategies of children’s good behaviors, the maternal ‘give a hug’ was positively correlated to the children’s social competence (r = .27, p < .05).

Conclusions: There was different maternal and paternal influence on Korean American children’s development. The paternal harsh discipline was related to problem behaviors while the maternal strategies were related to social competency in Korean American Children.

Implications: Clinically, the findings provide suggestion for practitioners that paternal spanking has the strongest association with behavior problems in Korean American children. It may be beneficial for Korean American children’s development if their fathers can learn other alternative strategies in managing children’s misbehaviors. Theoretically, this study indicates a need of developing or using a culturally sensitive instrument to adequately capture the features of Korean American parenting.

Learning Objective #1: reflect and discuss the issues regarding measurement and interpretation among minority groups;
Learning Objective #2: use the findings of study as the evidence of their practices