Study finds how kids react on discipline practices

A new study can help parent to get an insight on how children react to discipline practices and sheds light on their views of what's fair.

Researcher Craig Smith said that a teacher, who rewards or punishes a whole class for the good deed or misdeed of just one student, is more likely to be seen as fair by four-to-five-year-olds but as less fair by older children.

He added the data suggests that most older children and adults will feel that the common practice of punishing everyone for the misdeed of one or a few is unfair.

The data collected during the study found that preschool-age children were more apt to punish groups of people for the transgressions of one person in the group.

Smith claimed it doesn't mean that the little ones are necessarily harsher as people, but that they have a different idea of what's fair.

The study has been published in the journal Developmental Psychology.