Parental Physical Force and Alcohol Use in Emerging Adults: Mediation by Psychological Problems

Abstract

Research has indicated that negative parenting practices, such as physical punishment, are associated with negative outcomes in children. These negative outcomes can present during childhood and during emerging adulthood. One negative consequence can be excessive alcohol use, a problematic outcome with its own myriad consequences. The goal of the current study was to examine the effects of parental physical force on emerging adult functioning, specifically alcohol and psychological problems. A sample of 488 young adults completed questionnaires on current perceptions related to alcohol-related problems, physical and psychological aggression by their parents experienced during the previous year, and current emotional and behavioral functioning. Results showed full mediation between paternal physical force and emerging adult alcohol problems by emerging adult psychological problems. Emerging adult psychological problems partially mediated the effect of maternal physical force on emerging adult alcohol problem. Gender did not moderate these effects. The results support existing literature suggesting that the use of parental physical force may lead to a chain reaction of problems, even during emerging adulthood. These results also reveal that emerging adults report currently receiving physical force from their parents, which brings to light a concerning lack of literature on the use of parental physical force on emerging adult children. These results advocate for positive parenting practives and efforts to teach them, even for emerging adult children. The results may also clinically suggest that paying attention to parental force in emerging adult clients could yield a better understanding of their current functioning, especially including excessive alcohol use.

Effect of Parental Corporal Punishment on Endorsement of Its Use: Moderated Mediation by Parent Gender and Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment

“…For example, in a study conducted by McKinney, Walker, and Kwan (2020), 59% of emerging adults surveyed endorsed receiving physical punishment from their father within the past year. In another study, 20% of emerging adult males and 17% of females reported experiencing corporal punishment (Pollard & McKinney, 2019). More recently, a study found that 30.9% of male and 20.9% of female emerging adults reported being spanked by their fathers and 33.9% of males and 28% of females reported being spanked by their fathers in the past year (McKinney, Stearns, & Rogers, 2020).…”

Parental Discipline in Emerging Adulthood: The Creation and Validation of the Domains of Young Adult Discipline Scale (DYADS)

“…Despite evidence linking physical discipline methods to harmful outcomes in earlier developmental periods (Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, 2016) and the influence of parents in emerging adulthood (Donnelly et al, 2013;McKinney & Renk, 2008), very little appears to be known about how parents discipline their emerging adult children. McKinney and colleagues (i.e., McClelland & McKinney, 2016;McKinney & Brown, 2017;McKinney, Brown, & Malkin, 2018;McClelland & McKinney, 2016;McKinney, Stearns, & Szkody, 2018;McKinney, Walker, and Kwan, 2016;Pollard & McKinney, 2016) have frequently used the CTSPC (Straus et al, 1998) to assess parental use of inductive tactics, psychological aggression, and physical punishment (i.e., physical assault and/or corporal punishment) during emerging adulthood. Although they generally found low rates of parental psychological aggression and physical assault, a significant portion of their samples (i.e., >5%) reported extremely high rates of these behaviors and concurrent high rates of psychological problems.…”

Perceived Parental Anxiety and Depressive Problems and Emerging Adult Oppositional Defiant Problems: Moderated Mediation by Psychological and Physical Maltreatment and Gender

“…Thus, although emerging adults can still experience ODD problems, they may differ between males and females and more research is needed to better understand these differences, particularly in the context of parental psychopathology and maltreatment. For example, research has indicated that sons are more likely to experience physical maltreatment from their parents, and this risk may be stronger in conjunction with parental anxiety and depressive problems, thus causing males to act out more and display ODD problems (Pollard & McKinney, 2016). Given that maltreatment by parents may be one of the processes through which parental anxiety and depressive problems can influence emerging adult ODD problems, including defiance and irritability, as well as associated gender differences, it is important to investigate this mediational process in the context of parent and child gender.…”