Explores the child-rearing practices of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) to identify those disciplinary approaches considered appropriate and inappropriate. Study participants were 273 Jewish families from the European countries of the FSU arriving in Israel between 1989 and 1998. In the interview process, parents were asked to respond to a number of vignettes that could be interpreted as not providing for a child’s needs, as involving physical punishment, or as using other psychological methods of punishment. The vignettes focused on violations of child-rearing values considered important in the FSU, such as obedience, conformity, and duty. Mental health professionals working with Russian Jewish immigrant families should take into account that: (1) psychological methods of punishment might be deemed acceptable by these parents; (2) children at a fairly young age are assumed to be self-sufficient to take care of some of their basic needs, such as meal preparation; (3) physical punishment might be viewed as legitimate if there is a reason for the punishment and no harm is caused by it; and (4) since parents are reluctant to seek help in child-rearing situations, effective investigation of suspect child maltreatment requires establishing rapport with the families.
