Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: coercion and punishment in the fabric of social relations
- I Mental health, coercion, and punishment
- II Family socialization practices and antisocial behavior
- III Aggression and coercion in the schools
- IV Deviance, crime, and discipline
- V Measuring and predicting in studies of coercion and punishment
- 19 Corporal punishment in everyday life: an intergenerational perspective
- 20 Coercive family process and delinquency: some methodological considerations
- 21 Sex roles as coercion
- Name index
- Subject index
20 - Coercive family process and delinquency: some methodological considerations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: coercion and punishment in the fabric of social relations
- I Mental health, coercion, and punishment
- II Family socialization practices and antisocial behavior
- III Aggression and coercion in the schools
- IV Deviance, crime, and discipline
- V Measuring and predicting in studies of coercion and punishment
- 19 Corporal punishment in everyday life: an intergenerational perspective
- 20 Coercive family process and delinquency: some methodological considerations
- 21 Sex roles as coercion
- Name index
- Subject index
Summary
Introduction
Social scientists have underscored the role of the family in the origins of child behavior problems, suggesting the importance of lack of parental involvement or overt neglect (McCord, 1991), inadequate supervision (Patterson, DeBaryshe, & Ramsey, 1989), parental rejection or hostility (Rohner, 1980), aversive discipline such as nagging or scolding (Patterson, 1986), and parent–child separation (Bowlby, 1944). A strict, punitive style, nagging and scolding, or erratic behavior have been pinpointed as probably the most relevant aspects, particularly in studies of aggression, delinquency, and other externalizing behavior problems (Burt, 1925; Loeber & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1986; McCord, 1988; Patterson, 1986).
While it is compelling to hypothesize that a child's experiences within the family are relevant to the development of delinquency and antisocial behavior, there is increasing interest in a broader focus, incorporating the contextual framework in which a family is placed (Melton, 1992; Sampson, 1992; Tonry, Ohlin, & Farrington, 1991). To study the influence of community variation on family characteristics, samples need to be drawn from a number of different communities and in sufficient numbers that there is individual variation within and between communities. However, there are methodological issues in studying large samples.
Much of the key research on the effect of coercive interactions within the family has been derived from relatively small-scale investigations using detailed observations of parent–child interactions (Dowdney Skuse, Rutter, & Mrazek, 1985; Patterson, 1982).
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- Coercion and Punishment in Long-Term Perspectives , pp. 348 - 361Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995