This study examined the disciplinary patterns and practices of 121 African American parents. Results indicated that the context of the disciplinary episode influenced how African American parents disciplined their children. Implications for counselor education and practice are discussed.
The disciplinary practices of African American parents have been the subject of considerable debate and commentary in social science literature. The basis of this discussion can be attributed to early studies (Anderson, 1936; Durrent, O'Bryant, & Pennebaker, 1975; Radin & Kamii, 1965) as well as more recent ones (Flynn, 1994: Portes, Dunham, &Williams, 1986) that infer African American parents use more physical, punitive, and power assertive discipline than do European American parents. For example, Portes et al.'s (1986) study of African American and European American lower-and middle-class mothers found that African American mothers tend to use more punitive methods, such as physical punishment and assertion of authority, than do European American mothers. Moreover, a more recent study (Flynn, 1994) of regional differences in attitudes toward physical punishment found that, nationally, African Americans are three times more likely than European Americans to favor spanking. A factor that complicates this issue is that several writers (Gray & NybelI, 1990; Haynes, 1994) contended that when African American families interfaced with human service providers, some African American parents felt like criminals for giving their children a well deserved spanking (Denby & Alford, 1996: Haynes, 1994). Consequently,