Forms of Spanking and Children's Externalizing Behaviors

Disrupting the Link between Corporal Punishment Exposure and Adolescent Aggression: The Role of Teacher-Child Relationships

Previous research has identified harsh parenting practices, such as corporal punishment, as a predictor of adolescent behaviour problems such as increased aggression. However, not all children who experience childhood corporal punishment develop increased aggression, making the illumination of factors moderating this link an important question for informing prevention. In the current study, an autoregressive cross-lagged panel model was used to examine teacher-child relationships as both a direct and interactive protective factor (via weakening the effects of corporal punishment exposure) in adolescent aggression. Data was used from the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood (z-proso). Self-reported data was collected at three time points: age 11 (n = 1144, 49% female) age 13 (n = 1366, 49% female) and age 15 (n = 1447, 48% female). Results suggested having a positive teacher-child relationship was a direct protective factor against concurrent aggression. However, there was not consistent evidence for a moderating effect of teacher-child relationships. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Patterns of caregiver aggressive and nonaggressive discipline toward young children in low- and middle-income countries: A latent class approach

BACKGROUND

Caregivers use a variety of disciplinary methods to respond to undesired child behavior. Many caregivers use nonaggressive forms of discipline, such as verbal reasoning and redirection. Some caregivers use aggressive forms of discipline, such as spanking and yelling. However, most caregivers use a combination of aggressive and nonaggressive discipline. To date, a disproportionately small number of caregiver discipline studies are conducted in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and few studies in low-resource contexts examine aggressive and nonaggressive behaviors simultaneously.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to elucidate caregiver patterns of 11 disciplinary behaviors used in LMICs, and examine how these patterns relate to child outcomes and household characteristics.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Data came from the fourth and fifth rounds of UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) distributed between 2009 and 2017 (N = 218,824 respondents across 63 countries). Focal children were 3-4 years old.

METHODS

Patterns of disciplinary behaviors were estimated using a multilevel latent class analysis (LCA). Multinomial regression analyses examined associations of disciplinary patterns with caregiver-reported child outcomes and household characteristics.

RESULTS

The LCA suggested caregiver discipline fell into three overall patterns: high behavioral control, moderate behavior control, and lower behavioral control. The lower behavioral control class was associated with the most advantageous child outcomes and household socio-demographic characteristics, whereas the high behavioral control class was associated with the most disadvantageous child outcomes and household characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS

Efforts should be employed to reduce aggressive behaviors and promote positive parenting among caregivers in LMICs.

Inconsistent Media Mediation and Problematic Smartphone Use in Preschoolers: Maternal Conflict Resolution Styles as Moderators

Previous studies suggest that inconsistent parenting leads to undesired consequences, such as a child’s defiant reactance or parent–child conflicts. In light of this, we examined whether mothers’ inconsistent smartphone mediation strategies would influence their children’s problematic smartphone use during early childhood. Furthermore, given that harsh parenting often escalates a child’s behavioral problems, we focused on parent–child conflict resolution tactics as moderators. One hundred fifty-four mothers (ages 25–48 years; M = 35.58 years) of preschoolers (ages 42–77 months) reported their media mediation and parent–child conflict resolution tactics and their child’s problematic smartphone use. We found that the positive association between the mother’s inconsistent mediation and their child’s problematic smartphone use was more pronounced when mothers relied on negative parent–child resolution tactics—i.e., psychological aggression and physical assault. Our findings provide vital theoretical and empirical insights into mother–child relational characteristics for the child’s problematic smartphone use.

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.

Spanking and externalizing problems: Examining within-subject associations

This study examined the effects of spanking on externalizing on a within-subject level, while excluding causally irrelevant between-subject variance. Results from two longitudinal studies which used participants from the Child Development Project (n = 585) were reanalyzed with a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model using yearly measurements over ages 6-8. After removing between-subject variance, there were no significant effects of general spanking on externalizing (β = .06, .07). However, when done without objects and at a rate of about once per month or less, spanking showed beneficial effects (β = -.17, -.21). Results suggest that previous findings may be due to a failure to separate between-subject and within-subject variance. Additionally, results illustrate the need to examine limited spanking separately from more general forms of physical punishment.

Physical punishment and child outcomes: a narrative review of prospective studies

Physical punishment is increasingly viewed as a form of violence that harms children. This narrative review summarises the findings of 69 prospective longitudinal studies to inform practitioners and policy makers about physical punishment's outcomes. Our review identified seven key themes. First, physical punishment consistently predicts increases in child behaviour problems over time. Second, physical punishment is not associated with positive outcomes over time. Third, physical punishment increases the risk of involvement with child protective services. Fourth, the only evidence of children eliciting physical punishment is for externalising behaviour. Fifth, physical punishment predicts worsening behaviour over time in quasi-experimental studies. Sixth, associations between physical punishment and detrimental child outcomes are robust across child and parent characteristics. Finally, there is some evidence of a dose-response relationship. The consistency of these findings indicates that physical punishment is harmful to children and that policy remedies are warranted.

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).

Examining the Longitudinal Effect of Spanking on Young Latinx Child Behavior Problems

Spanking is a divisive discipline practice in the USA and is considered an inappropriate and harmful discipline tactic by some scholars and practitioners. However, increased diversity in the USA has contributed to varying cultural beliefs regarding discipline, which in turn influences child development. While prior literature has examined correlates of spanking, few studies have examined its impact on Latinx children over time. We examined the use of spanking by Mexican-American (n = 185) and Dominican-American mothers (n = 141) across three time points. The main objective was to investigate whether maternal spanking predicted externalizing problems in young Latinx youth overtime. Families were recruited from public urban schools. Data were collected when children were 4-, 5- and 6-years old. A three-wave cross-lagged multi-group path analysis examined the potential reciprocal relationships between maternal spanking and child externalizing behaviors. According to cross-sectional linear regression models, spanking was concurrently associated with behavior problems at all three time points. However, the results of the cross-lagged multi-group path analyses showed that spanking did not predict subsequent behavior problems, nor did behavior problems predict subsequent spanking. The impact of spanking on child behavior may not be long-lasting in all Latinx families. Spanking and youth externalizing problems are concurrently and positively related; however, maternal use of spanking as a means of discipline did not result in negative and long term effects on child externalizing problems. Implications for practice with Latinx families are explored.

Corporal Punishment and Child Aggression: Ethnic-Level Family Cohesion as a Moderator

Ethnicity has been examined as a putative moderator between parents' use of corporal punishment and children's externalizing behaviors. Yet, the reasons for this potential ethnic-level moderator have not been fully examined. The primary objective of this study was to examine whether the effect of corporal punishment on aggression is ethnic-specific using major racial groups inside and outside the U.S. samples and how the mean levels of cohesion in family relationships as found in different ethnic groups moderate the association between mothers' use of corporal punishment and children's aggression. A total of 729 mothers who had children aged 7 to 13 years were sampled from five ethnic groups (i.e., European American, African American, Hispanic American, Korean, and Chinese). Several hypotheses were tested to examine the moderating effect of ethnic-level, family cohesion on the relation of corporal punishment to children's aggression. As expected, the mean level of family cohesion was significantly different across ethnicities. Consistent results across parallel multilevel and fixed effect models showed that high corporal punishment was associated with more aggression in all ethnicities, but there was a significant variation in the association across ethnicities, and the variation was explained by ethnic-level family cohesion. There were weaker associations between corporal punishment and child aggression among ethnic groups with high family cohesion and stronger associations among ethnic groups with low family cohesion. Ethnic/cultural variation in this study emphasizes the importance of understanding family environment of diverse ethnic groups when evaluating the influence of corporal punishment on child behavior in different ethnic/cultural contexts.

Associations between young children's exposure to household violence and behavioural problems: Evidence from a rural Kenyan sample

Little is known about how young children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience violence in their homes, and how different types of household violence may affect child development. This study reports on levels of exposure to household violence and associations with child behavioural outcomes in preschool-aged children in western Kenya. A sample of 465 caregivers, whose children (n = 497) attended early learning centres supported by an international NGO, were enrolled in the study. Caregivers reported on exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV), household discipline practices, attitudes about gender roles, and child behavioural outcomes. Multivariable analysis showed significant predictive effects of IPV (regression coefficient = 1.35, SE = 0.54, p = 0.01) and harsh psychological child discipline (regression coefficient = 0.74, SE = 0.22, p = 0.001), but not physical discipline (regression coefficient = 0.42, SE = 0.24, p = 0.08), on worse child behavioural problems. These findings indicate that child exposure to violence in different forms is highly prevalent, and associated with poorer outcomes in young children. Community-based programmes focused on parenting and early child development are well-positioned to address household violence in LMIC settings, but must be supported to provide a broader understanding of violence and its immediate and long-term consequences.

Reciprocity in Undesirable Parent-Child Behavior? Verbal Aggression, Corporal Punishment, and Girls' Oppositional Defiant Symptoms

Parental verbal aggression and corporal punishment are associated with children's conduct problems and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). The strength of bidirectional relationships among specific disruptive behaviors has been inconsistent across gender, and the direction of influence between parental aggression and girls' ODD symptoms is particularly understudied. This study tested reciprocal effects between aggressive parent behaviors and girls' ODD dimensions of oppositionality, antagonism, and irritability. Data from the Pittsburgh Girls Study (N = 2,450) were used, including annual child and parent-reported aggressive discipline and girls' parent-reported ODD symptoms between ages 5 and 16. Separate clustered Poisson regression models examined change in parent or child behavior outcomes using predictors lagged by one time point. After controlling for demographic factors, behavior stability, and other disruptive behaviors, parent-reported corporal punishment predicted girls' increasing antagonism and irritability, whereas child-reported corporal punishment was unrelated to ODD symptom change. Both parent- and child-reported verbal aggression predicted increases across ODD dimensions. Girls' oppositionality and antagonism predicted increasing parent-reported verbal aggression over time, but only oppositionality was significantly related to child-reported verbal aggression. Although ODD symptoms were unrelated to change in corporal punishment, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) predicted increasing parental aggression of both types. Bidirectional associations emerged such that parental verbal aggression escalates reciprocally with girls' behavioral ODD symptoms. Verbal aggression contributed to increasing irritability, but irritability did not influence parenting behavior. "Child effects" may be most salient for behavioral ODD symptoms in transaction with verbal aggression and for ADHD symptoms in predicting worsening corporal punishment and verbal aggression.

Associations of Harsh Physical Punishment and Child Maltreatment in Childhood With Antisocial Behaviors in Adulthood

IMPORTANCE

Inquiry into what childhood experiences are associated with antisocial behaviors in adulthood is necessary for prioritizing and informing efforts for effective prevention.

OBJECTIVE

To examine whether harsh physical punishment in the absence of child maltreatment and child maltreatment with and without harsh physical punishment are associated with antisocial behaviors in adulthood.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

Cross-sectional study using data on the general US population obtained from the National Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions Wave 3 from April 2012 to June 2013. Participants were civilian, noninstitutionalized adults 18 years and older. This study used a multistage probability sampling design (response rate, 60.1%). Data were analyzed from January 25 to November 27, 2018.

EXPOSURES

Harsh physical punishment included pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping, and hitting. Child maltreatment included physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect, and exposure to intimate partner violence.

MAIN OUTCOMES OR MEASURES

Lifetime antisocial personality disorder behaviors since age 15 years were assessed using the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule-5 based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition) criteria.

RESULTS

The number of study participants was 36 309, with 15 862 men (weighted percentage, 48.1%) and 20 447 women (weighted percentage, 51.9%); mean (SE) age was 46.54 (0.19) years. The prevalence of harsh physical punishment and child maltreatment was 18.1% and 46.7%, respectively. Harsh physical punishment only (adjusted β, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.50-0.75), child maltreatment only (adjusted β, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.60-0.69), and harsh physical punishment and child maltreatment (adjusted β, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.38-1.54) were associated with adult antisocial behaviors. It is estimated that harsh physical punishment and/or child maltreatment might account for approximately 45.5% of antisocial behaviors among men in the United States and 47.3% antisocial behaviors among women in the United States.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Harsh physical punishment and child maltreatment appear to be associated with adult antisocial behaviors. Preventing harsh physical punishment and child maltreatment in childhood may reduce antisocial behaviors among adults in the United States.

Parsing dimensions of family violence exposure in early childhood: Shared and specific contributions to emergent psychopathology and impairment

Early childhood exposure to family violence predicts increased risk for psychopathology. However, violence between partners and towards children often co-occur. This complicates efforts to determine how experiences of family violence contribute to early mental health problems. Utilizing mother-report data on harsh parenting and intimate partner violence (IPV) from two large community-based, socioeconomically and ethnically diverse samples of 3-5-year-old children, we illustrate the value of a bifactor method for characterizing a family climate in which verbal and physical violence are more chronic and pervasive among family members. In our Calibration sample (N = 1,179), we demonstrate the fit of a bifactor model with a shared violence factor reflecting violence among partners and towards children and orthogonal factors for physically harsh parenting and IPV. Examination of item distributions along quartiles on the identified factors reveals that violent behaviors are most frequent/chronic in families with high scores on the shared violence factor. Next, we apply this model in Validation (N = 1,316) and lab-visit samples (N = 369). Children's symptoms and impairment showed relatively strong and consistent associations with the shared factor. Some unique associations with IPV and harsh parenting were also observed. Overall, patterns suggest particularly negative impact when verbal and physical violence are more chronic and pervasive among family members. Finally, evidence supporting the bifactor model's validity relative to multi-method data from coded interviews about child abuse and IPV and observed parenting is presented. Findings illustrate the value of a bifactor approach for the meaningful characterization of shared and specific features of family violence.

Parent Spanking and Verbal Punishment, and Young Child Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors in Latino Immigrant Families: Test of Moderation by Context and Culture

Objective

This study examined the prevalence and correlates of spanking and verbal punishment in a community sample of Latino immigrant families with young children, as well as the association of spanking and verbal punishment with child internalizing and externalizing problems 1 year later. Parenting context (e.g., warmth) and cultural context (e.g., the cultural value of respeto) are considered as potential moderators.

Design

Parenting and cultural socialization practices were assessed via parent self-report in sample of 633 Mexican and Dominican immigrant families with young children (M age = 4.43 years). Parent and teacher assessments of child internalizing and externalizing were also collected at baseline and 12 months later.

Results

At Time 1, male child gender was positively correlated with concurrent spanking; familial social support and U.S. American cultural knowledge were negatively correlated with mothers' spanking. Verbal punishment at Time 1 was associated with externalizing problems at Time 2 among both Mexican and Dominican American children, and this relation was not moderated. Additionally, verbal punishment was associated with Time 2 child internalizing problems among Mexican American children. There were no significant associations between spanking and later child internalizing or externalizing behaviors.

Conclusion

It is important that researchers examine both physical and verbal discipline strategies to understand their unique influences on Latino child outcomes, as well as contextual influences that may elucidate the use and long-term effects of spanking and verbal punishment on Latino children at different developmental stages.

The strength of the causal evidence against physical punishment of children and its implications for parents, psychologists, and policymakers

The question of whether physical punishment is helpful or harmful to the development of children has been subject to hundreds of research studies over the past several decades. Yet whether causal conclusions can be drawn from this largely nonexperimental research and whether the conclusions generalize across contexts are issues that remain unresolved. In this article, the authors summarize the extent to which the empirical research on physical punishment meets accepted criteria for causal inference. They then review research demonstrating that physical punishment is linked with the same harms to children as is physical abuse and summarize the extant research that finds links between physical punishment and detrimental outcomes for children are consistent across cultural, family, and neighborhood contexts. The strength and consistency of the links between physical punishment and detrimental child outcomes lead the authors to recommend that parents should avoid physical punishment, psychologists should advise and advocate against it, and policymakers should develop means of educating the public about the harms of and alternatives to physical punishment. (PsycINFO Database Record

Lien entre les pratiques parentales négatives et les problèmes de comportement extériorisés des jeunes enfants à leur entrée à la maternelle : effet modérateur des pratiques positives de l’autre parent

Cadre de la recherche : L’étude de l’impact respectif des pratiques parentales des deux parents laisse entrevoir que les pratiques parentales des pères tout comme celles des mères contribuent positivement à l’adaptation sociale de l’enfant. Cependant, les pratiques parentales peuvent également être liées à la présence de difficultés d’adaptation, notamment de problèmes de comportement extériorisés. À une époque où les deux parents s’investissent dans l’éducation de leurs enfants, il est pertinent de se pencher sur l’influence mutuelle des pratiques parentales des deux parents sur les problèmes de comportement extériorisés de l’enfant et ainsi, déterminer des facteurs de modération possibles de la coparentalité au sein d’une même famille.

Objectifs : La présente recherche1 vise à vérifier : 1) si les pratiques parentales positives du père modèrent la relation entre les pratiques parentales négatives de la mère et les problèmes de comportement extériorisés de l’enfant et 2) si les pratiques parentales positives de la mère modèrent la relation entre les pratiques parentales négatives du père et les problèmes de comportement extériorisés de l’enfant.

Méthodologie : L’étude est transversale et porte sur un sous-échantillon de 626 enfants (âge moyen de 5,6 ans) et leurs deux parents. Les données ont été recueillies par questionnaires auprès des pères et des mères séparément.

Résultats : Les résultats d’analyses de régression multiple démontrent l’effet simple des pratiques négatives des deux parents sur les problèmes de comportement extériorisés de l’enfant. On remarque un effet modérateur des pratiques parentales positives de la mère sur les pratiques parentales négatives du père, mais pas l’inverse.

Conclusions : L’étude révèle l’importance de s’attarder aux pratiques parentales négatives, autant pour les mères que pour les pères. De plus, il apparait que l’effet combiné des pratiques des deux parents pourrait avoir un impact aussi important que les pratiques parentales individuelles sur le développement de l’enfant.

Contribution : De nouvelles connaissances dans le domaine du co-engagement parental sur le développement de l’enfant sont présentées dans cette étude, en considérant l’effet modérateur des pratiques parentales positives dans cette relation.

Race as a Moderator of Associations Between Spanking and Child Outcomes

The cultural normativeness perspective argues that parenting practices such as spanking are more beneficial for children when they occur in cultural groups within which they are normative. Research on this issue in the United States has focused on race as a marker of culture, and findings have been mixed. The present study presents meta-analyses of five studies that reported effect sizes separately for White (n = 11,814) and Black (n = 3,065) American children (5 to 14 years of age). Mean weighted effect sizes for both groups indicated statistically significant associations with detrimental outcomes; they were not statistically significantly different from one another. Contrary to the cultural normativeness perspective, these results demonstrate that spanking is similarly associated with detrimental outcomes for White and Black children in the United States.

Individual, family, and culture level contributions to child physical abuse and neglect: A longitudinal study in nine countries

This study advances understanding of predictors of child abuse and neglect at multiple levels of influence. Mothers, fathers, and children (N = 1,418 families, M age of children = 8.29 years) were interviewed annually in three waves in 13 cultural groups in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). Multilevel models were estimated to examine predictors of (a) within-family differences across the three time points, (b) between-family within-culture differences, and (c) between-cultural group differences in mothers' and fathers' reports of corporal punishment and children's reports of their parents' neglect. These analyses addressed to what extent mothers' and fathers' use of corporal punishment and children's perceptions of their parents' neglect were predicted by parents' belief in the necessity of using corporal punishment, parents' perception of the normativeness of corporal punishment in their community, parents' progressive parenting attitudes, parents' endorsement of aggression, parents' education, children's externalizing problems, and children's internalizing problems at each of the three levels. Individual-level predictors (especially child externalizing behaviors) as well as cultural-level predictors (especially normativeness of corporal punishment in the community) predicted corporal punishment and neglect. Findings are framed in an international context that considers how abuse and neglect are defined by the global community and how countries have attempted to prevent abuse and neglect.

Spanking and child outcomes: Old controversies and new meta-analyses

Whether spanking is helpful or harmful to children continues to be the source of considerable debate among both researchers and the public. This article addresses 2 persistent issues, namely whether effect sizes for spanking are distinct from those for physical abuse, and whether effect sizes for spanking are robust to study design differences. Meta-analyses focused specifically on spanking were conducted on a total of 111 unique effect sizes representing 160,927 children. Thirteen of 17 mean effect sizes were significantly different from zero and all indicated a link between spanking and increased risk for detrimental child outcomes. Effect sizes did not substantially differ between spanking and physical abuse or by study design characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record

Associations between child disabilities and caregiver discipline and violence in low- and middle-income countries

Using nationally representative samples of 45,964 two- to nine-year-old children and their primary caregivers in 17 developing countries, this study examined the relations between children's cognitive, language, sensory, and motor disabilities and caregivers' use of discipline and violence. Primary caregivers reported on their child's disabilities and whether they or anyone in their household had used nonviolent discipline, psychological aggression, and physical violence toward the target child and believed that using corporal punishment is necessary. Logistic regression analyses supported the hypothesis that children with disabilities are treated more harshly than children without disabilities. The findings suggest that policies and interventions are needed to work toward the United Nations' goals of ensuring that children with disabilities are protected from abuse and violence.

Parental endorsement of spanking and children's internalizing and externalizing problems in African American and Hispanic families

This study assessed prospective, bidirectional associations between maternal endorsement of spanking and children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in low-income urban African American and Hispanic (N = 592) families drawn from the Three City Study. Children in sample families were followed from early childhood through middle childhood with 3 sets of interviews and assessments at ages 3, 4, and 9 years. Cross-lagged path analyses tested longitudinal bidirectional associations between parental endorsement of spanking and children's internalizing and externalizing problems, with multigroup comparisons employed to test group differences between race/ethnic groups. African American and Hispanic mothers showed similar endorsements of spanking. Results suggest that associations between spanking endorsement and child functioning were due primarily to parenting effects, with spanking predicting changes in children's behaviors, rather than child evocative effects, with limited evidence of child behaviors predicting changes in parental spanking. Maternal spanking endorsement predicted short-term decreases in children's internalizing problems in early childhood, but over the longer term spanking was associated with increased internalizing and externalizing problems for both African American and Hispanic children in middle childhood among economically disadvantaged families.

Spanking, corporal punishment and negative long-term outcomes: a meta-analytic review of longitudinal studies

Social scientists continue to debate the impact of spanking and corporal punishment (CP) on negative child outcomes including externalizing and internalizing behavior problems and cognitive performance. Previous meta-analytic reviews have mixed long- and short-term studies and relied on bivariate r, which may inflate effect sizes. The current meta-analysis focused on longitudinal studies, and compared effects using bivariate r and better controlled partial r coefficients controlling for time-1 outcome variables. Consistent with previous findings, results based on bivariate r found small but non-trivial long-term relationships between spanking/CP use and negative outcomes. Spanking and CP correlated .14 and .18 respectively with externalizing problems, .12 and .21 with internalizing problems and -.09 and -.18 with cognitive performance. However, when better controlled partial r coefficients (pr) were examined, results were statistically significant but trivial (at or below pr = .10) for externalizing (.07 for spanking, .08 for CP) and internalizing behaviors (.10 for spanking, insufficient studies for CP) and near the threshold of trivial for cognitive performance (-.11 for CP, insufficient studies for spanking). It is concluded that the impact of spanking and CP on the negative outcomes evaluated here (externalizing, internalizing behaviors and low cognitive performance) are minimal. It is advised that psychologists take a more nuanced approach in discussing the effects of spanking/CP with the general public, consistent with the size as well as the significance of their longitudinal associations with adverse outcomes.