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E. T. Gershoff (2002) reviewed processes that might mediate and contexts that might moderate the associations between corporal punishment (CP) and child behaviors and provided an account of the methodological weaknesses of the research reviewed in her meta-analyses. In this examination of Gershoff, the authors argue that the biases and confounds in the meta-analyses further limit any causal inferences that can be drawn concerning the detrimental "effects" of CP on associated child behaviors. The authors suggest that undesirable child outcomes are associated with CP because the construct marks inept harsh parenting and conclude that although the harmful effects of physical abuse and other extreme punishments are clear, a blanket injunction against spanking is not justified by the evidence presented by Gershoff.

When more than one correlation coefficient is tested for significance in a study, the probability of making at least one Type I error rises rapidly as the number of tests increases, and the probability of making a Type I error after a Type I error on a previous test is usually greater than the nominal significance level used in each test. To avoid excessive Type I errors with multiple tests of correlations, researchers should use procedures that answer research questions with a single statistical test and/or should use special multiple-test procedures. A review of simultaneous-test and multiple-test procedures for correlations is given. Several new procedures are described.

This meta-analysis investigates differences between the effect sizes of physical punishment and alternative disciplinary tactics for child outcomes in 26 qualifying studies. Analyzing differences in effect sizes reduces systematic biases and emphasizes direct comparisons between the disciplinary tactics that parents have to select among. The results indicated that effect sizes significantly favored conditional spanking over 10 of 13 alternative disciplinary tactics for reducing child noncompliance or antisocial behavior. Customary physical punishment yielded effect sizes equal to alternative tactics, except for one large study favoring physical punishment. Only overly severe or predominant use of physical punishment compared unfavorably with alternative disciplinary tactics. The discussion highlights the need for better discriminations between effective and counterproductive use of disciplinary punishment in general.

This study used structural equation modeling with longitudinal data from the Oregon Youth Study to test the hypothesis that the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on delinquency in early adolescence would be mediated entirely by parental management skills. SES was measured by parental education and occupation when the son was in the fourth grade, parental management skills during the sixth grade, and delinquency during the seventh grade. The hypothesis was supported: The direct effect of SES on delinquency was not significant afer controlling for parental management, which was modeled as a second-order factor consisting of parental monitoring and discipline. Implications are discussed for theories of delinquency and for delinquency prevention and treatment.Parental variables consistently predict delinquency more strongly than most other variables, yet parenting tends to be ignored in most major theories of delinquency (Cernkovich and Giordano, 1987; Hirschi, 1986; Wells and Rankin, 1988). Patterson's (1982; Patterson et al., in press a, b) coercion theory is a recent theory of delinquency that provides a central place for parental management as a primary antecedent of delinquency. The effect on delinquency of background variables, such as SES, divorce, and exposure to criminal elements, is thought to depend on the adequacy of parental management skills. As one test of the claimed centrality of parenting skills, this study hypothesized that the effects of SES on delinquency in early adolescence would be mediated entirely by parental management skills. SES AND DELINQUENCYAs Rutter and Giller (1983: 132) noted, the "presumed strong association between delinquency and social class constitutes the basis for most of the leading sociological theories of crime." The theories differ mainly in how they account for that association. Thus, Merton's (1957) anomie-strain theory assumes that it is the greater frustration of lower social class youths that * We gratefully acknowledge support for this project from Biola University and grants MH 37940 and MH 17126 from the Center for Studies of Antisocial and Violent Behavior,Bank's critiques of earlier drafts improved this article. CRIMINOLOGY VOLUME 28 NUMBER 2 1990 301 1. Hirschi's (1969) social control theory did not emphasize SES as centrally as have the other major theories, but he made it clear that he expected the usual SES-delinquency association to hold within his theory. Thus, he stated, "The clearest examples [of commitment to conventional lines of action in society] are educational and conventional careers. Actions thought to jeopardize one's chances in these areas are presumably avoided" (p. 2 1). Despite finding generally nonsignificant associations between SES and delinquency, he concluded, "It is not surprising, then, that we continue to feel that social class should be related to delinquency and that we should search for an explanation of the finding of no difference" (p. 73). Because Hirschi's (1969) control theory is part of Elliott et al.'s (1985) integrate...

The current study examined associations between adolescent respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) during an angry event discussion task and adolescents’ emotion regulation and adjustment. Data were collected from 206 adolescents (10–18 years old, M age = 13.37). Electrocardiogram (ECG) and respiration data were collected from adolescents, and RSA values and respiration rates were computed. Adolescents reported on their own emotion regulation, prosocial behavior, and aggressive behavior. Multi-level latent growth modeling was employed to capture RSA responses across time (i.e., linear and quadratic changes; time course approach), and adolescent emotion regulation and adjustment variables were included in the model to test their links to RSA responses. Results indicated that high RSA baseline was associated with more adolescent prosocial behavior. A pattern of initial RSA decreases (RSA suppression) in response to angry event recall and subsequent RSA increases (RSA rebound) were related to better anger and sadness regulation and more prosocial behavior. However, RSA was not significantly linked to adolescent aggressive behavior. We also compared the time course approach with the conventional linear approach and found that the time course approach provided more meaningful and rich information. The implications of adaptive RSA change patterns are discussed.

Selection bias can be the most important threat to internal validity in intervention research, but is often insufficiently recognized and controlled. The bias is illustrated in research on parental interventions (punishment, homework assistance); medical interventions (hospitalization); and psychological interventions for suicide risk, sex offending, and juvenile delinquency. The intervention selection bias is most adequately controlled in randomized studies or strong quasi-experimental designs, although recent statistical innovations can enhance weaker designs. The most important points are to increase awareness of the intervention selection bias and to systematically evaluate plausible alternative explanations of data before making causal conclusions.