Does Race/Ethnicity Moderate the Associations between Neighborhood and Parenting Processes on Early Behavior Problems?

Does community violence exposure moderate the associations between maternal spanking and early child behavior problems?

“…Several studies have found little direct empirical support for the neighborhood moderation hypothesis and suggested that the associations between spanking and child outcomes are universal across contextual conditions (e.g., Grogan‐Kaylor, 2005; Simons et al, 2002). These findings are in line with a growing body of literature that has consistently linked spanking with negative child outcomes regardless of social contexts such as country (Pace, Lee, & Grogan‐Kaylor, 2019), cultural normativeness (Gershoff et al, 2010), and race and ethnicity (Gershoff & Grogan‐Kaylor, 2016b; Gershoff, Lansford, Sexton, Davis‐Kean, & Sameroff, 2012; Ma & Klein, 2018). It thus remains unclear whether the associations of parental spanking with child behavior problems may differ in disadvantaged social contexts with high levels of victimization and violence exposure.…”

“…Even so, this study makes an important contribution to our understanding of the social contexts in which spanking may or may not increase negative child behaviors. Specifically, prior research that examined moderators of the associations between parental physical punishment and child behavior problems (e.g., Berlin et al, 2009; Gershoff & Grogan‐Kaylor, 2016b; Gershoff et al, 2012; Lee, Altschul, & Gershoff, 2013; Ma & Klein, 2018; Stacks, Oshio, Gerard, & Roe, 2009; Ward et al, 2019) have generally failed to demonstrate that there are factors that moderate the main association linking parental use of spanking to child wellbeing. Even in studies that find some degree of moderation of the effect of physical punishment (Gershoff et al, 2010; Lansford et al, 2005; Pace et al, 2019), there is no moderation to such a degree that spanking is seen to be beneficial in any particular country or social context.…”

Spanking

“…Furthermore, in the United States, a national history of racial discrimination and institutionalized social and economic segregation of Black communities may influence Black parents in low-income neighborhoods to employ parenting techniques such as spanking in order to better prepare their children for the environmental challenges and physical dangers they may face. Other researchers have found that, in Hispanic families, cohesiveness, respect, family harmony, and the mother's role as a caring and nurturing parental figure are highly esteemed values that may contribute to the reported lower rates of spanking in some studies (Ma and Klein 2018).…”

“…Additionally, many studies indicate greater use of corporal punishment in Black families than in White families (Gershoff and Grogan-Kaylor 2016). Data is conflicted regarding the use of spanking in Latino families, with some studies reporting as high as 73% of Latino families using spanking (e.g., Klevens et al 2019), and some reporting rates of spanking in Latino families to be less than that of White families (e.g., Ma and Klein 2018). Differences in the use of corporal punishment between racial and ethnic groups have been found to be associated with parental stress, parents' cognitive-emotional processing of children's misbehavior, negative perceptions of the child, beliefs regarding the effectiveness of corporal punishment, the level of importance placed on obedience, and positive attitudes regarding corporal punishment (Klevens et al 2019).…”

“…However, regardless of how culture affects the frequency of spanking among various racial or ethnic groups, most of the literature concludes that the detrimental effects of spanking on children remain consistent (Ma and Klein 2018). Gershoff et al (2012) studied four racial or ethnic groups in the United States (Hispanic, Asian, White, and Black) and found that, despite differences in the frequency of use of spanking, there were no differences in how spanking predicted an increase in children's behavior problems.…”