There is good news for parents worried about time-outs as a punishment. Research shows time-outs can effectively discipline children up to eight years old. Parents do not need to worry about their parenting skills as time-outs do not harm children or their relationship with their parents. Researchers compared children whose parents used time-outs with those who didn't. They found no difference in the children's emotional wellbeing or behavior.
Parents use time-outs to change their children's behavior. Children go to a quiet space to think about their actions. Scientists have disagreed about the effectiveness of this. A researcher said: "Some reports...suggested that time-out is ineffective and even harmful [and] can damage the parent-child relationship and negatively affect emotional health". She said: "We did not find a relationship between time-outs and negative side effects in children."