Beliefs and ideologies linked with approval of corporal punishment: a content analysis of online comments

Childhood Experiences and Attitudes toward Corporal Punishment: The Mediating Role of Perceived Efficacy of Alternative Discipline Strategies among Low-income Black, Hispanic, and White Parents

Corporal punishment (CP) is associated with harmful outcomes to child development. Favorable attitudes toward CP are a major predictor of CP use. Thus, identifying and changing factors influencing such attitudes help to prevent CP. Although research has confirmed the effect of childhood experiences of CP on attitudes toward CP, few studies have examined mechanisms underpinning this association. To fill this gap, this study investigated the role of perceived efficacy of alternative discipline strategies in mediating the association between childhood experiences of CP and attitudes toward CP among low-income Black, Hispanic, and White parents. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 230 parents (M_age = 31; Black = 62, Hispanic = 62; White = 106). Structural equation modeling results revealed that more positive childhood experiences of CP were associated with lower perceived efficacy of alternative discipline strategies. In turn, lower perceived efficacy of alternative discipline strategies was associated with more favorable attitudes toward CP. Mediation analysis performed by the bootstrapping methods confirmed the mediating effect of perceived efficacy of alternative discipline strategies. When race was considered, this mediation pathway was held for Hispanic and White parent groups. These results suggested that future research should pay more attention to the role of perceived efficacy of alternative discipline strategies. Additionally, public education campaigns should consider incorporating efficacy messages to effectively reduce positive attitudes toward CP among low-income parents.

Examining Sources of Social Norms Supporting Child Corporal Punishment Among Low-Income Black, Latino, and White Parents

Child corporal punishment is a prevalent public health problem in the US. Although corporal punishment is sustained through parents' perceptions of social norms supporting this discipline behavior, little research has investigated where these normative perceptions come from. To fill this gap, we conducted 13 focus groups including 75 low-income Black, Latino, and White parents across five states in the US. Results revealed that one influential source of Black and White parents' perceived norms was their positive framing of corporal punishment experiences during childhood. Furthermore, Black parents formed normative perceptions based on identification with parents in their racial/ethnic group, while White parents did so with parents sharing the same generation. Results are interpreted in light of the false consensus effect and self-categorization theory. In contrast, Latino parents viewed their childhood experience of corporal punishment as negative and distanced their parenting practices from those practiced in their countries of origin, suggesting an influence of acculturation. Their perceived norms were likely transmitted through interpersonal communication within their social networks. These findings shed light on how social norms are formed and in turn guide parents' use of corporal punishment as a tool to discipline children.

Practice of Disciplinary Methods and Factors Associated With Belief for Physical Punishment Among Malaysian Parents: Findings From NHMS 2016

The belief in the effectiveness of physical punishment is an important predictor for its use. The objectives of this study was to describe the factors associated with the belief for physical punishment toward children 1 to 5 years of age among Malaysian parents. Data was collected as part of the Malaysian National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2016. The respondents were asked if they believed that physical punishment is needed to raise a child properly. A total of 60.0% of Malaysian parents believed in the need for physical punishment, with 54.3% practising it. Parents who believed in physical punishment had more than 2 times a higher likelihood of practising it (odds ratio 2.57) than those who did not. Parents need to be taught to respond positively to children's behavior and anger management strategies in difficult parenting situations.

The association between spanking and physical abuse of young children in 56 low- and middle-income countries

BACKGROUND

Nearly one third of children under five in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience spanking. Studies from North America suggest that spanking is associated with heightened risk of physical abuse. However, the link between spanking and physical abuse in the international context remains understudied.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association between caregivers' spanking and physical abuse of young children in LMICs, and to estimate the extent to which physical abuse might be reduced if spanking were eliminated.

PARTICIPANTS

We used nationally representative data from 156,166 1- to 4-year-old children in 56 LMICs from the fourth and fifth rounds of UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys.

METHODS

A nationally weighted multilevel logistic regression model examined the association between spanking and physical abuse. We calculated predicted probabilities of physical abuse, which we present using natural frequencies.

RESULTS

Spanking was associated with higher odds of physical abuse (OR = 5.74, p < .001). The predicted probability of physical abuse decreased by 14% comparing children who were spanked (22%) and who were not spanked (8%). When our estimates were translated to a hypothetical sample of 100 children using a natural frequency approach, 32 children were spanked; of those, seven experienced physical abuse. The elimination of spanking would result in four fewer children who were exposed to physical abuse. In relation to the population of abused children, estimates suggest that physical abuse could reduce by up to 33% if spanking were eliminated.

CONCLUSIONS

Results support the UN Sustainable Development Goals Target 16.2 that calls for eliminating all forms of violence against children. Child welfare advocates should discourage caregivers from using spanking, in order to prevent physical abuse.

Parent Discipline and Pre-schoolers' Social Skills

Educators recognize children's social competence as an indicator of school readiness. Children's social competence may be promoted prior to kindergarten through parents' discipline; however, prior research largely focused on parenting and social competence in older children or only focused on children's problem behaviours. We assessed parent discipline as a predictor of 37 low-income pre-schoolers' social skills over four months. Parents answered open-ended questions about how they would respond to child behaviours; children's pre-school teachers rated their social skills. In a hierarchical regression controlling for children's age and initial social skills, parents' inductions significantly predicted children's later social skills. Although children's social skills were correlated with parents' pairing of consequences and inductions, this relation was no longer significant when controlling for age and initial social skills. Power assertive discipline and time-outs were not significantly correlated with children's social skills. The results suggest that parents' inductions may be beneficial for children's social skills by focusing the child's attention on the reasons the behaviour was inappropriate.

The Allure of Scapegoating Return Migrants during a Pandemic

The stigmatization of Senegalese return migrants as COVID-19 vectors by fellow Senegalese during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic troubles the self/other distinction that underpins the scholarly focus on epidemics and xenophobia and encourages the broader task of exploring epidemics and phobia. The casting of return migrants as COVID-19 vectors was influenced by longstanding ambivalence toward these migrants that had encouraged some Senegalese to seek to "confine" them to Europe long before the pandemic. Old preoccupations help us understand how Senegalese interpreted and deployed COVID-19 control and prevention measures like "confinement," lockdowns, and border closures.

Identifying knowledge, self-efficacy and response efficacy of alternative discipline strategies among low-income Black, Latino and White parents

Corporal punishment (CP) leads to detrimental mental and physical consequences for a child. One way to prevent CP is to encourage parents to apply alternative discipline strategies that do not involve violence. Based on the knowledge-behavior gap framework in public health education, this study analyzed the focus group data of 75 low-income Black, Latino and White parents to uncover commonalties and differences in their knowledge, self-efficacy and response efficacy of alternative discipline strategies. Findings revealed that parents knew several alternative discipline strategies and had confidence in their ability to conduct these strategies. However, parents reported that some strategies were hard to implement because they lacked the relevant resources. Moreover, parents did not perceive that alternative discipline strategies were effective without using some forms of CP. Knowledge, self-efficacy and response efficacy of alternative discipline strategies are risk factors for child physical abuse and addressing them will help prevent injury and health impacts on children, while providing safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for child development.

Trust in expert versus lay comments in online articles about spanking and car seat safety

In this study, we experimentally examined parents' perceptions of scientific information about spanking, a controversial topic, and car seat safety, a consensus topic, presented in online news articles. Specifically, we tested whether parents of children ages 2 to 8 years would trust scientific experts (speaking from professional expertise) more than online lay commenters (speaking from personal experience). One hundred and eighty parents across 41 U.S. states were recruited online from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (124 mothers, 56 fathers; 74% White, 9% Black, 8% Latino, 8% Asian, and 1% other or multiple ethnicities). Parents were randomly assigned to read a news article with an expert discussing spanking research that varied by two conditions: The news article contained either anti-spanking lay comments or pro-spanking lay comments. All parents also read a second news article on car seat safety (a consensus topic). Between-condition analyses were used to compare perceptions of the comment conditions, and within-condition analyses were used to compare perceptions of the expert knowledge versus the comments and to compare perceptions of the spanking expert versus the car seat expert. Moderation analyses were used to compare parents' perceptions based on their attitudes toward spanking. Parents with positive attitudes toward spanking recognized pro-spanking comments as opinion, yet still found them more trustworthy than a scientist taking the opposite position. All parents perceived the car seat expert as trustworthy. The results highlight challenges in disseminating information about controversial topics to the public. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Interest in Communication Technology by Rural Caregivers of Adolescents with Mental Health Issues in South Africa: The Mmogo-Method®

Caregivers determine the level of care adolescents with mental issues receive; however, caregivers' own needs are often unmet. Communication technology can be tailored to address these challenges, especially in a rural environment. This study aimed to explore caregivers' interest in using communication technology to provide support to address challenges. This study involved a visual-based narrative inquiry that gathered data through the Mmogo-method^®. Three (n = 3) groups were held with rural caregivers (n = 17) of adolescents with mental health issues in a rural area in the Free State province of South Africa during 2017. Three themes captured challenges confronting caregivers, namely, psychosocial, social resources, and informational challenges. Interest in communication technology was captured in a fourth theme. The findings indicate that communication technology can address caregivers' challenges by providing support and information to caregivers in rural areas. Communication technology, including mobile phones, electronic devices, and the Internet, has transformed healthcare services and proved to be valuable in resource constraint environments.

Child maltreatment risk mediates the association between maternal and child empathy

BACKGROUND

Empathy deficits are related to parental maltreatment, and early exposure to maltreatment is associated with later impairments in social and interpersonal skills, possibly as the result of specific deficits in cognitive and emotional empathy.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association between maternal and child's emotional and cognitive empathy, and how this relationship is mediated by maltreatment risk.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

462 mothers of 4-10 years olds (48 % girls; M = 6.51 ± 1.57) were recruited through an online platform (Prolific Inc.) during 2018.

METHODS

Mothers were asked to report on their own cognitive and emotional empathy, views related to abuse risk, and their child's cognitive and emotional empathy.

RESULTS

Findings show that maternal perspective taking (a measure of cognitive empathy), and maternal personal distress predict child's cognitive empathy through abuse risk (beta = -0.29, p value = 0.0002 and beta = 0.22, p value = 0.0001, respectively). Conversely, for child's emotional empathy there was no mediation through abuse risk, rather direct associations were observed for empathic concern (a measure of emotional empathy; beta = 0.36, p value = 0.0197), personal distress (beta = 0.23, p value = 0.0332), and the fantasy scale (another measure of cognitive empathy; beta = 0.36, p value = 0.0019).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings help clarify the complex links between maternal empathy, abuse risk, and child's empathy, showing that maternal views related to abuse are specifically predictive of child's cognitive but not emotional empathy. As such, these findings raise further questions regarding the mechanism by which maternal characteristics and behavior are associated with child's empathy.

Expressions of domestic violence against adolescents: Educators' speeches

OBJECTIVES

to describe the expressions recognized by domestic violence educators experienced by school adolescents.

METHODS

it is a qualitative study based on Paulo Freire's liberating pedagogy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 teachers from a public elementary school in the city of Salvador, state of Bahia, Brazil. The data were systematized through the Discourse of the Collective Subject.

RESULTS

collective discourse reveals that educators identify schoolchildren who experience physical, psychological and negligent abuse, being denied even love and affection.

CONCLUSIONS

although not alluding to sexual abuse, educators recognize that students are inserted in the context of domestic violence, knowledge necessary for the development of actions that enable the exit of the student from the oppressed and overcoming the lived experience.

Perceptions of Adolescents and Caregivers of Corporal Punishment: A Qualitative Study Among Indo-Caribbean in Suriname

While the protection of children from all forms of violence is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, violence remains a part of life for children around the globe. Corporal punishment is a form of violence and a dominant practice as a method of corrective parenting in the Caribbean. While researchers are starting to ask children directly about their experiences of violence, there is limited research on children's perspectives of the function, legality, and boundaries of corporal punishment, particularly in low-and middle-income countries. This study begins to address this gap by reporting on 12 focus groups that were conducted with adolescents (aged 12 to 18 years) and caregivers of Indo-Caribbean background in Suriname. The aim is to explore adolescents' and caregivers' shared perspectives about the prevalence of corporal punishment in Suriname, responses to and feelings about its use as a discipline strategy and perspectives of the rationales for and against corporal punishment, and their views on banning it. Analyses were done using ATLAS.ti version 1.0.50, a qualitative data package. Corporal punishment showed to be an everyday experience in children's lives in Suriname. There was no clear consensus regarding adolescents' and caregivers' perspectives on the parental use of corporal punishment. Many participants hesitated to support efforts to prohibit corporal punishment legally. Messages arising from this study could usefully inform the development of a public information campaign on safe and effective discipline of children in Suriname.

Abuso intrafamiliar na infância de homens em processo criminal por violência conjugal

Resumo Objetivo Desvelar o abuso intrafamiliar vivenciado na infância de homens em processo criminal por violência conjugal. Métodos Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo, fundamentado no referencial teórico proposto por Walter Benjamin. A coleta de dados ocorreu por meio de entrevistas com 23 homens que estavam respondendo judicialmente por violência conjugal em uma Vara de Violência Doméstica e Familiar contra Mulher da cidade de Salvador, Bahia, Brasil, as quais foram categorizadas com o apoio do Software Nvivo-11 e organizadas através do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo. Resultados As falas evidenciaram uma infância marcada pela falta de afeto, vivência de violência física e psicológica, expressa pelas marcas corporais, cárcere privado e amedrontamento, bem como o testemunho da violência conjugal entre os pais. Ao tempo que aponta para o trauma dessa vivência, o estudo alerta que o sujeito coletivo percebe-se reproduzindo, em sua relação conjugal, as mesmas atitudes paternas. Conclusão A experiência de uma infância marcada por violência intrafamiliar sinaliza o caráter intergeracional da violência doméstica, refletida nas relações conjugais abusivas.

Promising intervention strategies to reduce parents' use of physical punishment

The strong and ever-growing evidence base demonstrating that physical punishment places children at risk for a range of negative outcomes, coupled with global recognition of children's inherent rights to protection and dignity, has led to the emergence of programs specifically designed to prevent physical punishment by parents. This paper describes promising programs and strategies designed for each of three levels of intervention - indicated, selective, and universal - and summarizes the existing evidence base of each. Areas for further program development and evaluation are identified.

American Parents' Attitudes and Beliefs About Corporal Punishment: An Integrative Literature Review

Research on American parents' beliefs about the use of corporal punishment (CP) shows widespread approval of this child-rearing practice. This review integrated 25 research articles to gain a better understanding of what American parents believe about the use of CP as a method of child-rearing, where they get their information about CP, and if American parents' beliefs about CP translate to the actual use of CP. The results showed that the main factors that influence a parent's endorsement of CP is the belief that CP is normative and expected when raising a child; is a necessary part of parenting, even for infants; and that certain stressors involving interactions between the parent, child, and environment can elicit the use of CP. Further research is needed to determine what methods are effective in changing parents' attitudes and beliefs about the use of CP.