Maternal discipline approaches: A comparison between children with conduct problems and a nonclinic group

This research compares the disciplinary approaches used by mothers of children with conduct problems, with the discipline approaches used by mothers of a nonclinic group. The research questions directing the study focused on the relationships among the concepts: conduct problem child, nonclinic child, competent and disruptive parenting, nurturing/deprived maternal childhood, maternal well-being/depression, and family and community supportive and nonsupportive environments.; Purposive sampling was used to obtain a sample of 62 mothers of nonclinic children collected from a large Northwest urban area. Retrospective data from mothers of children with conduct problems was obtained from a parenting clinic, also located in a large Northwest urban area.; Findings support the hypothesis that competent parents are more likely to use parental warmth, firm control, involvement and more appropriate control strategies with their children, whereas disruptive parents are more likely to lack parental warmth and less likely to be involved with their child. Disruptive parents are also more likely to use inept/harsh control and inappropriate control strategies.