This report presents the findings of research with parents relating to disciplining children. It was carried out between March and August 2002 when consideration was being given to changing the law in relation to physical discipline. The research was designed to provide information about attitudes and behaviours amongst parents in Scotland and had two main components.
The first stage consisted of a series of qualitative interviews with couples, focus groups and individuals to facilitate a detailed exploration of relevant themes. This was followed by a nationally representative quantitative survey of 692 Scottish parents designed to provide robust quantitative data on the prevalence of particular views and behaviours.