The text is about how parents discipline their children. It discusses various forms of discipline, including corporal punishment, and the effects on children's relationships at school. The final sentence contrasts less harsh methods with corporal punishment, and talks about the effect on children's attitudes towards their school and people at school, and so the missing word is: peers.

SCRIPTS

When parents are asked how they handle their very unruly children, most will admit that they are likely to use physical forms of punishment. This is not to say that a parent generally hits their child each and every time they are bad. Nevertheless, parents generally use physical punishment as a last resort, after having unsuccessfully tried other forms of discipline with children who have become very bad. Those who believe in physical punishment, however, are unaware of the fact that it does not lead to better children. In fact, the opposite is true.

Research findings show that children from homes where corporal punishment is the norm exhibit more anti-social behavior than children whose parents seldom or never hit them. For example, children whose parents systematically use corporal punishment are more often than not behind any classroom disruptions. Such children not only create discipline problems at school. but they are also overly aggressive. ln addition, they have extremely low self-esteem and a negative attitude to those around them. On the other hand, child ren whose parents use less harsh methods of discipline have a healthier attitude towards their school environment and (BEEP).