Survey Finds Best Way of Scolding to Foster Children's Independence

Kobe, Oct. 31 (Jiji Press)--When parents scold their children, telling them to "try hard next time" has a more positive effect in terms of fostering independence in children than driving them into a corner or punishing them, a Japanese survey showed. The survey was conducted jointly by Kobe University and Doshisha University in March last year, receiving answers from some 1,300 people in their 20s to 60s through an online questionnaire. Respondents were categorized into three groups based on the way their parents scolded them. Then, they were asked questions such as "who decided which high school you go to?" in order to measure them in terms of four perspectives--sense of independence, feeling of security, long-term perspective and compliance. As a result, the group of respondents who were told "let's try hard next time" or were scolded in similar ways had higher scores than the other two groups in all the four indexes. The group of respondents who were scolded in a way that drove them into a corner had higher scores than the group of respondents who were punished in the three indexes other than the index for sense of independence. Respondents were also categorized into three groups based on the way they were praised by their parents. The group of respondents who were told "you tried hard" had the highest marks in all the four indexes, followed by the group of those who were told "you are great" and by the group of those who were given a reward. "When children are constantly driven into a corner or punished, they become concerned about how they appear to their parents and think only of ways to avoid angering them, thus losing their sense of independence," said Kazuo Nishimura, specially appointed professor at Kobe University who conducted the survey. "It's important to be aware of the advantages of various scolding methods when interacting with children," he said. END