Effects of gender, education and age levels of child care workers on attributions of disipline effectiveness.

Abstract

The present study assessed perceptions of different discipline techniques of 30 child care workers employed by three juvenile detention facilities in the State of Kansas. Sixteen male child care workers and fourteen female child care workers with different amounts of education and experience watched three videotaped scenarios showing a child misbehaving. Each scenario used a different style of discipline (retributive, restitutive, explanatory) technique. Subjects then were asked to fill out a questionnaire comparing the three discipline styles in terms of their own endorsement. The data for all the ratings were analyzed utilizing Education, Gender, Age and Discipline Style as control variables. Of the control variables only treatment style (discipline style) and gender showed themselves to be significant. Age and education were not seen by this study to be significant variables in determining which discipline technique a worker would endorse. Of all the variables (TRT) or treatment style was the most significant. Both male and female child care workers endorsed the restitutive discipline style as their most preferred technique. The retributive style was a distant second, while the explanatory style was a close third. Over all child care workers appear to strongly favor restitutive discipline over that of retributive and explanatory. Gender proved to be significant also in that males were more willing to endorse retributive discipline than females were. Female child care workers placed explanatory discipline as their second choice. Male workers were reluctant to do that but rather chose retributive discipline as a second option.