Unravelling the Parent-Child Contexts in Which Corporal Punishment Predicts Increases vs. Decreases in Children’s Aggression

ABSTRACT

Objective

This study tested whether the longitudinal effects of mothers’ and fathers’ corporal punishment on children’s aggression would vary depending on the context of the parent-child relationship (gender of the parent-child dyad, other parenting practices).

Method

Participants were 325 children (M_age = 7.44 years, SD = .50) and their parents from Estonia who participated in a longitudinal study. Both mothers and fathers filled out measures of parenting practices in Grade 1 (corporal punishment, warmth, behavioral and psychological control). Teachers rated children’s aggressive behavior in Grade 1 and 3.

Results

We found that the effects of both mothers’ and fathers’ corporal punishment on changes in children’s aggressive behavior were conditional. In contexts that were characterized by a lack of parental warmth or overuse of behavioral control, corporal punishment was associated with increases in aggression; in parent-child relationships with high levels of parental affection or low levels of behavioral control, it was unrelated to, or associated with, decreases in aggression. Some of these conditional effects were specific to the gender of the parent and the child.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that we should try to better understand the complexities of different parent-child relationships that magnify vs. minimize the negative consequences of corporal punishment.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the parents, children, teachers, and everyone else who contributed to this project.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Tallinn University (grant TF3818).