Corporal Punishment and Child Behavioural and Cognitive Outcomes through 5 Years of Age: Evidence from a Contemporary Urban Birth Cohort Study

Abstract

This study examined the prevalence and determinants of spanking of children at 3 years-of-age, and the associations between spanking and externalizing behavior and receptive verbal ability at age 5. Overall, we find maternal spanking rates of 55.2% and paternal rates of 43.2% at age 3. Mothers facing greater stress and those who spanked earlier are more likely to spank at age 3, whereas those who report a supportive partner during pregnancy and those who were not U.S. born were less likely to spank. Mothers and fathers in communities where spanking was more normative were more likely to spank. Fathers were less likely to spank daughters at age 3. Frequent maternal spanking at age 3 was associated with externalizing behavior and receptive vocabulary at age 5, controlling for an array of ecological risks, earlier behavior, and verbal capacity. Taking advantage of the large and diverse sample we explored potential interactions and found no evidence that race, parental warmth, normativeness, or child gender moderated the association between spanking and externalizing or receptive vocabulary. These findings add to the literature on negative consequences associated with a widely endorsed parenting practice, and highlight the need for research that explores alternative effective discipline practices and addresses parent questions of what else they could, or even should, be doing.

Spanking and Child Development Across the First Decade of Life

“…In particular, a large and growing literature points toward an association between spanking and higher levels of aggression among children. 2,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] However, there remain some limitations in the research to date. 14,15 First, few studies have used longitudinal samples to address the temporal sequencing of spanking and child outcomes.…”

“…[16][17][18] Two studies have examined spanking and cognitive outcomes prospectively but only in very young children. Berlin et al 7 found links between spanking and early child Bayley scores in a large sample of lowincome preschoolers and toddlers, and MacKenzie et al 10 found evidence of associations between early spanking and lower child vocabulary scores at age 5.…”

“…The responses are summed to derive 1 score (range 3-15, with 15 indicating a highly difficult temperament), and the measure has been used to predict earlier spanking behavior in this data set. 10 Table 1 provides descriptive statistics for all controls.…”

“…The scale is coded such that a higher score indicates lower levels of parental stress, and it has been shown to predict harsh parenting of preschoolers in this data set. 10 Mother' s mental health risk was assessed by symptoms indicating depression or generalized anxiety disorder at any of the interviews where these concerns were included. At age 1 and 3, items assessing both depression and anxiety were included, whereas at ages 5 and 9, the interviews contained only items pertaining to depression.…”

Twenty-Five Years of Physical Punishment Research: What Have We Learned?*

“…35) Researchers are also finding that physical punishment is linked to slower cognitive development and receptive vocabulary, and poorer academic achievement. 36,37) These findings come from large longitudinal studies that control for a wide range of potential confounders. 38) Intriguing results are now emerging from neuroimaging studies that suggest physical punishment may reduce the volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex 39) and may cause alter-ations in the dopaminergic regions associated with vulnerability to drug and alcohol abuse.…”