DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2018.v06i11.067

Pages: 4537-4540

The impact of mismatch between temperaments of parents and children on nature of disciplinary practices adopted by the parents has not been studied extensively. Hence the present study was carried out with the aims and objectives to study the disciplinary practices adopted by mothers of preschool children and Impact of mismatch between mother- child temperaments on disciplinary practices. This was a prospective cross sectional study in which 300 mothers of preschool children were selected in a random manner. Consent of participating mother was obtained before administering the questionnaire which included the demographic details, circumstances requiring discipline, disciplinary practices adopted by the mothers, dimensions of child temperament and dimensions of mother’s temperament. The temperament of mother and child included the seven dimensions: 1. Activity level 2. Regularity 3. Response to new situations 4. Adaptability 5. Distractibility 6. Persistence and 7. Intensity. The statistical analysis was done by using percentages, chi square test with the help of software Epi info version 6.6. Out of 300 subjects, 3 cases could not be included in the analysis because of incomplete information; hence results were analyzed and presented for 297 cases. The mother and child temperament was matched and it was found that there was a significant mismatch in the temperament between the two with regards to its dimensions response, distractibility and intensity. It was observed that the violent type of disciplinary practices were more frequent in cases of not good at studies (p-0.000), tantrums (p= 0.045) and disobedience (p=0.009). To conclude it was found that there is mismatch between maternal and child temperament and also that there is significant increase in the chances of violent disciplinary practices used by mothers.