Violent child discipline is a widespread phenomenon that can have devastating short- and long-term consequences for an individual's physical, mental and social wellbeing. Parents' beliefs and expressed ideas about child discipline, both violent and non-violent, can differ from their practice. This study identifies which disciplinary methods Qatari mothers believe to be the most successful in changing their child's behaviour and compares them to the ones they report actually using. Using a cross-sectional design, a representative sample of Qatari mothers completed an anonymous standardised questionnaire, the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Child Abuse Screening Tool for Parents. The majority (96.9 per cent) of Qatari mothers reported believing in non-violent disciplinary methods (NVDMs) in changing their child's behaviour and those believing only in such methods are more likely to use only them compared to those mothers believing in a mixture of methods (30.9 vs. 6.7 per cent, chi-squared value [𝜒²] = 83.5, P value <0.001). Still, 44.9 and 5.2 per cent of Qatari mothers believing in only NVDMs also used at least one moderate and one severe physical method, respectively. Much public education is needed to increase Qatari mothers' awareness in of the benefits of NVDMs, to foster a belief in their efficacy and to support using them.

中文翻译：

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卡塔尔母亲对儿童管教方法的信念及其使用情况：一项横断面研究

暴力儿童管教是一种普遍现象，可能对个人的身体、心理和社会福祉产生毁灭性的短期和长期后果。父母对儿童管教（无论是暴力还是非暴力）的信念和表达的想法可能与他们的做法不同。这项研究确定了卡塔尔母亲认为哪些管教方法最能成功地改变孩子的行为，并将这些方法与她们报告的实际使用的方法进行了比较。采用横断面设计，卡塔尔母亲的代表性样本完成了一份匿名标准化调查问卷，即国际防止虐待儿童和忽视儿童虐待家长筛查工具。大多数（96.9％）卡塔尔母亲表示相信非暴力管教方法（NVDM）可以改变孩子的行为，与相信多种方法混合的母亲相比，那些只相信这种方法的母亲更有可能只使用非暴力管教方法（30.9% vs. 6.7%，卡方值 [𝜒 ² ] = 83.5，P值 <0.001）。尽管如此，仅相信 NVDM 的卡塔尔母亲中，有 44.9% 和 5.2% 的人也分别使用了至少一种温和的物理方法和一种严重的物理方法。需要开展大量公共教育来提高卡塔尔母亲对 NVDM 益处的认识，培养对其功效的信念并支持使用它们。