Social Work Now (11) December 1998 : 4-9

This article examines a study that looked at Māori people's attitudes towards physically disciplining children, and their motivation and reasoning for using this form of discipline. Six Māori people, aged 21 to 67 years, were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule, and a thematic analysis was employed to identify prominent themes from the participants' transcripts. A number of themes were identified as being common across all participants' interviews. These included using physical punishment as a way to teach children right from wrong; the 'cycle of abuse' (although it was found that the use of physical discipline was more likely to be associated with being 'Māori' than the cycle of abuse); and racism (using physical punishment to try and make children fit better into a 'Pākehā' society in order to avoid racism comments). The researchers also found that stress, frustration and anger were often precursors to the use of physical punishment. The author concludes that dominant Pākehā ideological views need to be challenged by Māori in order for change to occur regarding the discipline of children. The article also includes a comparison of an historical nature between Western societies' way of disciplining children and those of traditional Māori society.