The impact of The 101s: A Guide to Positive Discipline parent training: A case study of kindergarteners and their parents in Bangkok, Thailand

To reduce using corporal punishment with children, the need to introduce alternative ways for parent practices has been requested by Thai parents. However, empirical research of parents' use of positive practices to discipline their young children has been limited in Thailand. Given the effectiveness of positive discipline as an accepted method in order to improve children's social and academic competencies in U.S., a cultural extension of positive discipline techniques to Thai culture is of interest. This study investigated the effectiveness of The 101s: A Guide to Positive Discipline training on Thai positive parenting skills to increase the quality of the teacher-child relationship, children's school adjustment and academic achievement in Thai kindergarteners. One hundred and sixty four kindergarteners, one hundred and sixty four parents and twenty kindergarten teachers participated. The parents reported their use of parenting techniques on The 101s Parent Interaction Checklist before and after the training. Before and after the training, the teachers rated their relationship with participating students by using The Student-Teacher Relationship Scale and rated school adjustment of the participating students by using The Teacher Rating Scale of School Adjustment. A MANCOVA analysis was conducted to assess the results. Overall, the results find The 101s: A Guide to Positive Discipline training to be an effective intervention for increasing Thai positive parenting skills, the teacher-child relationship and children's school adjustment. The bivariate correlation showed relationships between positive parenting skills and the teacher-child relationship on closeness and conflict. Students' self-directedness scores also had significant correlation with parents' use of positive discipline techniques. Finally, parents' interactions also showed significant correlation with students' school achievement. This investigation offers empirical support for the extension of positive parenting skills previously shown to be effective in the U.S. to Thailand. In another joint study conducted concurrently, it was also demonstrated that positive discipline practices implemented by both teachers and parents increased the quality of the teacher-child relationship, students' school adjustment and school achievement.