Parents Corporal Punishment, Influence Factors And Changing Trends Of The Relationship With The Child And Adolescent Problem Behaviors

Corporal punishment is one of the most widely used, normative practices fordisciplining children. It has been defined as “the use of physical force with theintention of causing a child pain, but not injury, for the purpose of correction orcontrol of child’s behavior”. To date, most research on parental corporal punishmenthas focused either on its occurrence or its long-term and short-term effects on children.Although it provided us many potentially important results, there are still severalstudy limitations that are worthy of consideration. Firstly, although much research hasbeen accumulated investigating the prevalence, frequency, and severity of corporalpunishment, less is understood regarding how this form of discipline changes duringchildhood and adolescence. Secondly, it has been found that many factors may affectwhether and how frequently parents use corporal punishment, but what factors thatare associated with the changes of corporal punishment across time have not beenexplored. Finally, most longitudinal research looking at the reciprocal effects ofparental corporal punishment and child problem behavior has been conducted withwestern samples and obtained mixed results, very little is known about the patterns ofthese relationships in Chinese culture. Furthermore, relatively few longitudinal studieshave examined whether the postulated reciprocal relationships change acrossdevelopment and across boys and girls.To address limitations in the existing literature, the present study had three goals:First, we examined the occurrence and developmental changes in parental corporalpunishment during childhood and adolescence using latent growth curve model andfurther explored the gender differences in such changes by multiple-group LGM.Second, we examined the effects of three time-invariant variables (parental education,parental disciplinary history and child temperament) and one time-variant variable(parental satisfaction) on the changes of parental corporal punishment, with anattempt to detect the common or unique predictor. Third, we examined the existenceof reciprocal effects over time between parental corporal punishment and child problem behavior among girls and boys in China and further explored whether sucheffects differed by child gender.As part of a large, ongoing longitudinal study on the relationship betweenparental discipline and children’s adjustment, father-mother dyads of first-gradechildren, third-grade children and seventh-grade adolescence were recruited from twopublic schools to participate in the current survey. The data were collected duringthree assessments one year apart (Time1, Time2, and Time3). Due to attrition, thepresent study finally used the data from300father-mother dyads of first-gradechildren,261father-mother dyads of third-grade children, and291father-motherdyads of seventh-grade adolescence in the analysis. The Parent-Child Conflict TacticsScale (CTSPC) was used to obtain the data on parental corporal punishment andparents’ disciplinary experiences in their childhood. The Early AdolescentTemperament Questionnaire (EATQ) and the Child Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ)were used to assess the children’s and adolescences’ temperament, respectively.Children’s externalizing or internalizing problem behavior was assessed using theChild Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Parental marital satisfaction was measured by the15-item Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test. Additionally, at T1, fathers andmothers provided demographic information including child age and gender, thenumber of children in the home, family composition, and paternal/maternal educationand current occupation.The main findings of this dissertation were as follows:1. The use of corporal punishment by mothers and fathers were stable from thefirst-grade to the third-grade but decreased linearly from third-grade to fifth-grade andfrom seventh-grade to ninth-grade.2. Significant variability in the initial levels of paternal corporal punishment andmaternal corporal punishment was found. Besides, significant variability was alsofound in the decreasing rate of corporal punishment for fathers of third-grade childrenand seventh-grade adolescence when disciplining boys and for mothers ofseventh-grade adolescence when disciplining girls.3. There are gender differences in the initial level of corporal punishment, with boys being more likely to be punished than girls. However, no gender differenceswere found in the decreasing rate of paternal and maternal corporal punishment.4. Parental disciplinary history was the most consistent and powerful predictor ofparents’ current use of corporal punishment toward children and adolescence. Themore parent experienced harsh discipline in childhood, the higher the initial level ofparental corporal punishment is and the slower its decreasing rate is. Effortful controlnegatively predicted the initial level but positively predicted the decreasing rate ofcorporal punishment for both parents of the third-grade children and theseventh-grade adolescence. Marital satisfaction could negatively predicted parentaluse of corporal punishment at three time points for parents of the first-grade children.5. For the first-grade children, there are reciprocal relationships betweenmaternal corporal punishment and child externalizing problem behavior, and onlychild-driven effects were found between maternal corporal punishment and childinternalizing problem behavior. No significant effects were found between paternalcorporal punishment and child externalizing or internalizing problem behavior. Forthe third-grade children, there are reciprocal relationships between maternal corporalpunishment and child externalizing problem behavior, and only child-driven effectswere found between maternal corporal punishment and child internalizing problembehavior and between parental corporal punishment and child problem behavior. Forthe seventh-grade adolescence, reciprocal relationships were found between parentalcorporal punishment and adolescence problem behavior.6. No gender differences were found in the reciprocal relationships betweenparental corporal punishment and child or adolescence problem behavior.Overall, as the first attempt to examine the changes in parental corporalpunishment during childhood and adolescence, the present findings expand on theexisting research and enhance theoretical models in this area. Also, the findings haveimportant practical implications for decreasing parental use of harsh discipline andreducing negative outcomes associated with corporal punishment.