Abstract:

The connection between religion and human behaviors has long been interested in the study of human development. A large body of research has shown that religion is one of the significant factors influencing parental practices for child rearing. Findings from previous research have shown that religion could function as a positive and negative influence to parental practices and child development. In Thailand, Christian parents who have participated in religious practices in churches reported that they raised their children the way they were disciplined. Their parental practices were also based on biblical principles. They believed that human was born with sin and human sin demands punishment. Nonetheless, the Christian parents were still concerned in their own parental practices and their children’s behaviors and development. Meanwhile, a growing body of research in Thailand in the 101s Positive Discipline Program, the U.S. national winning-award program for training parents, teachers, and early childhood educators to promote children's development, have evidenced that the 101s Positive Discipline Training Program could promote effective parental practices and support children’s development in Thailand. The findings from the research also helped to improve the 101s Positive Discipline Training Program to be more suitable to Thai culture and context. However, previous research in the 101s Positive Discipline Training Program was conducted with homogeneous groups of parents. A program evaluation for parents in multicultural groups was suggested. Therefore, this research attempted to review and revise the content of the 101s Positive Discipline Training Program for Christian parents in Thailand. the aim of the research was to combine the principles of the biblical parenting and the 101s positive discipline techniques in order to complement the two principles with philosophical-based concepts and effective child-raring practices.

A documentary research was designed to examine unstated, tacit and implicit meanings of the two principles toward child-raring practices.Tertiary and solicited documents were collected based authenticity, credibility, representativeness, and meaning. Selected data was arranged and analyzed through 3 main procedures-- data reduction, data display, and data drawing and verifying conclusions. The primary analysis of the literature in the principles of the biblical parenting and the 101s Positive Discipline led to data reduction. Two major themes were revealed including the views of children and the views of parenting practices. For the views of children, there were two sub-themes-- the basic needs and child development. For the views of parenting practices, there were also divided into two sub-themes-- beating and showing affection. Each sub – themes would be displayed in narrative text regarding the interpretations of the principles of biblical parenting and the 101s positive discipline techniques. Then, the conclusions would be drawn by making conceptual and theoretical coherence and verified by getting feedback from experts in theologians, Christian psychiatrists, psychologists, neuro-scientists, sociologists, early childhood educators, and Christian parents. The finding from this research would help to develop the 101s Positive Discipline Training Program for Christian parents in Thailand and become beneficial to parenting guides and child development.

Keywords:

Biblical principle, positive discipline, parental practices, child rearing, child development.