Differentiating corporal punishment from physical abuse in the prediction of lifetime aggression

Abstract

Corporal punishment and parental physical abuse often co-occur during upbringing, making it difficult to differentiate their selective impacts on psychological functioning. Associations between corporal punishment and a number of lifetime aggression indicators were examined in this study after efforts to control the potential influence of various forms of co-occurring maltreatment (parental physical abuse, childhood sexual abuse, sibling abuse, peer bullying, and observed parental violence). College students (N = 1,136) provided retrospective self-reports regarding their history of aggression and levels of exposure to childhood corporal punishment and maltreatment experiences. Analyses focused on three hypotheses: 1) The odds of experiencing childhood physical abuse would be higher among respondents reporting frequent corporal punishment during upbringing; 2) Corporal punishment scores would predict the criterion aggression indices after control of variance associated with childhood maltreatment; 3) Aggression scores would be higher among respondents classified in the moderate and elevated corporal punishment risk groups. Strong support was found for the first hypothesis since the odds of childhood physical abuse recollections were higher (OR = 65.3) among respondents who experienced frequent (>60 total disciplinary acts) corporal punishment during upbringing. Partial support was found for the second and third hypotheses. Dimensional and categorical corporal punishment scores were associated significantly with half of the criterion measures. These findings support efforts to dissuade reliance on corporal punishment to manage child behavior.

Underlying mechanisms for racial disparities in parent-child physical and psychological aggression and child abuse risk

“…All forms of PCA can be viewed as occurring along a continuum, in which commonplace parental discipline practices (e.g., spanking, yelling) lie on one end of the continuum and physical and psychological abuse at the other end (e.g., Rodriguez, 2010). Use of physical discipline is a recognized precursor for physical abuse (King et al, 2018), increasing the odds of physical and psychological abuse (Afifi, Mota, Sareen, & MacMillan, 2017). Parents' physical child abuse risk also covaries with use of psychological aggression (Rodriguez, 2010;Rodriguez & Richardson, 2007), underscoring commonalities between both physical and psychological forms of PCA (Kim, Lee, Taylor, & Guterman, 2014;Lee, Kim, Taylor, & Perron, 2011;Spinazzola et al, 2014).…”

Spanking

“…Gershoff and Grogan-Kaylor's (2016) meta-analysis attempted to differentiate between open-handed spanking and more severe forms of physical punishment, and still spanking was associated with more aggression, antisocial behavior, externalizing and internalizing problems, mental health problems, and lower cognitive ability. Additionally, the negative outcomes for corporal punishment are similar in magnitude and direction with physical abuse (Gershoff and Grogan-Kaylor 2016;King et al 2018).…”

Parental Corporal Punishment and Peer Victimization in Middle Childhood: A Sex-Moderated Mediation Model of Aggression

“…More than 50 years' worth of research attests to the detrimental effects of corporal punishment on children (Vaughan-Eden et al, 2019). While most previous studies fail to consider the severity of the punishment (Gershoff, 2013), recent evidence suggests that the negative outcomes associated with mild or severe physical punishment are actually quite similar (Gershoff and Grogan-Kaylor, 2016;King et al, 2018). For example, corporal punishment has been considered an important predictor of child aggression, with spanking children at age 1 year being related to externalizing behavior one and 2 years later (Berlin et al, 2009;Gromoske et al, 2012).…”