Ethnic Differences in the Effects of Five Disciplinary Techniques on Subsequent Externalizing Behavior Problems

Abstract

To identify disciplinary alternatives to replace spanking, this study investigated ethnic differences in the associations of five disciplinary techniques with subsequent externalizing behavior problems in a national sample of 7- to 11-year-olds with ANCOVAs and difference-score analyses. Most techniques led to significant reductions in externalizing problems for African–Americans or Hispanics, but only after overcoming known biases in ANCOVA and not for other European–Americans. Privilege removal had the most significantly effective results, followed by grounding. Sending children to their room and spanking significantly reduced externalizing problems only in one or two analyses for African–Americans, whereas removing children’s allowance was significantly effective in one overall analysis. Parenting research needs to distinguish between more vs. less effective use of all disciplinary techniques across multiple situational and cultural contexts.

Keywords:

• African–Americans
• causal inference
• externalizing behavior problems
• Hispanics
• privilege removal
• spanking
• timeout

Additional information

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge funding for this research from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (#5-R03HD107307) and the Oklahoma State Foundation through the Parenting Research Professorship.