Interviews were conducted with 336 mother -child dyads (children's ages ranged from 6 to 17 years; mothers' ages ranged from 20 to 59 years) in China, India, Italy, Kenya, the Philippines, and Thailand to examine whether normativeness of physical discipline moderates the link between mothers' use of physical discipline and children's adjustment. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that physical discipline was less strongly associated with adverse child outcomes in conditions of greater perceived normativeness, but physical discipline was also associated with more adverse outcomes regardless of its perceived normativeness. Countries with the lowest use of physical discipline showed the strongest association between mothers' use and children's behavior problems, but in all countries higher use of physical discipline was associated with more aggression and anxiety.

The challenge of making difficult decisions and delivering difficult news is an inevitable part of the patient-physician relationship in pediatric oncology. This qualitative study highlights the psychological aspects of being a pediatric oncologist. The study presents some practical implications in the daily work and physician-related recommendations on how to overcome the demanding role of messenger.

Children's perceptions of parental discipline methods and their perceptions of child gender differences in their parents' choices of discipline methods were assessed. One hundred and seventy 8-year-old children (78 boys, 92 girls) in two-parent families were asked about disciplinary behaviour in five transgression situations. The results pointed to gender differences when the children were talking about themselves. Boys believed that they would receive more physical punishment, milder requests and less induction than girls. Children also indicated that their parents would choose a different response if they (themselves) were of the other sex. Both boys and girls reported that their parents would treat boys more severely than they would girls. The results showed that the responses of those children with a sibling of the other sex did not reveal any gender-differentiated experience of their parents' discipline strategies.

The present study examined the discipline methods used and personal and social determinants of power assertive strategies amongst 113 part-time and 128 full-time adoptive grandmothers of Kenyan children aged 1-10 years. Most of these children had been orphaned by AIDS. Evidence obtained from the study suggested that these caregivers' employment of power assertive strategies were linked to the total stress experienced, educational attainment, and child age but not to the gender of children adopted. The results also indicated a higher prevalence of the assertive and behaviour modification strategies amongst participants over the mean age of 62 years, respondents having basic education (1-12yrs), and those dealing with transgressions of children aged 6 years and above. Coercive verbal forms of control were mainly used by younger grandmothers, or caregivers of children aged less than 6 years. The least preferred inductive strategies were employed by younger respondents, persons lacking formal education, or those dealing with children of both gender aged below 6 years. These findings suggested that the antecedents of power assertive strategies lay both within personal and contextual factors.

The present study examined whether the total stress experienced by 241 caregiving grandmothers was linked to levels of care provided, child behavioral difficulty, and perceived availability of emotional and instrumental support. One hundred and twenty eight of these participants adopted their orphaned grandchildren on full-time basis. The rest (n = 113) were grandmothers providing partial parenting roles in households that also included one of these children's biological parents. The results indicated that the full-time grandmothers experienced significantly higher levels of stress than did the part-time caregivers. The total stress experienced was related to these participants' perception of child behavioral difficulty and limited instrumental support.