Parents' perspective relating to justifying corporal punishment, parental stress and support

Uloga roditelja i djece u suvremenom odgoju značajno se promijenila. Roditelji se usvajanjem novih, djelotvornih i prihvatljivih odgojnih postupaka postupno prilagođavaju novoj i drugačijoj ulozi djeteta i roditelja. U toj prilagodbi roditelji mogu naići na mnoge poteškoće pa su im, s vremena na vrijeme, potrebne stručna pomoć i podrška. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je upoznati stavove roditelja predškolske djece o tjelesnom kažnjavanju te saznati koliko su im stresne različite situacije koje doživljavaju, a povezane su s odgojem djece. Ujedno, željeli smo dobiti uvid u doživljaj dostupnosti socijalne podrške roditeljima djece predškolske dobi. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 110 roditelja djece predškolskog uzrasta. Dobiveni rezultati pokazuju da većina roditelja ne opravdava korištenje tjelesnog kažnjavanja u odgoju djeteta. Što se tiče informiranosti roditelja o zakonskoj zabrani tjelesnog kažnjavanju u Republici Hrvatskoj, vidljivo je kako je većina roditelja upoznata s navedenom zakonskom odredbom. Prema dobivenim rezultatima roditelji koji su stariji, s manjim brojem djece u obitelji, koji percipiraju da primaju manje podrške iz neformalnih izvora te roditelji koji iskazuju veću potrebu za stručnom pomoći doživljavaju intenzivniji roditeljski stres. Dobiveni podaci pokazuju kako roditelji najviše podrške dobivaju iz neformalnih te iz formalnih izvora bliže okoline, dok najmanje podrške dobivaju iz formalnih izvora šire zajednice. Rezultati nisu utvrdili postojanje povezanosti između roditeljskog stresa i stavova o opravdanosti tjelesnog kažnjavanja djeteta, ali ukazuju na postojanje povezanost između roditeljskog stresa i potrebe za stručnom podrškom te roditeljskog stresa i percepcije dostupnosti neformalne podrške.
Parents' and children's role in today's way of parenting has changed a lot. Parents these days are adjusting to a new and more different way of understanding parents' and children's role inside the family. Throughout this process of adjustment parents can face many different problems and that is why they will need professional help and support. The purpose of this research was to see what people with preschoolers think of corporal punishment and how stressful for them are different situations related to the parenting of their child. Additionally, we have wanted to see what parents think of the availability of social support and are they satisfied with it. 110 parents with preschoolers have taken part in our research. The obtained results show us that the majority of parents does not approve nor finds justifiable reasons to use physical punishment as part of parenting. As far as parents' awareness of the law in question is concerned, our statistics show us that the majority are well informed that corporal punishment is forbidden in the Republic of Croatia. According to our results parents who are older with less children in the family and believe that they do not receive the support needed from casual and non-professional sources along with parents who express the need of social support are more likely to experience stress in their family. Given results also show that more parents find more support from casual sources and professional sources closely related to the family but less from professional ones in the wider community. Results did not determine any relation between stress in the family and personal opinion which justifies corporal punishment, but they did show a relation between stress in the family and need for social support and support from casual sources.