Poster #144 - Child and Maternal Characteristics Associated with the Use of Corporal Punishment: A Sibling Comparison Analysis

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

The use of corporal punishment (CP) is a controversial topic both within the scientific community and among the general public (Gershoff, 2013). Although previous studies have examined child and maternal characteristics associated with CP use (e.g., Berlin et al., 2009; MacKenzie, Nicklas, Brooks-Gunn, & Waldfogel, 2011), there is limited research studying how interactions between child and maternal characteristics may influence CP use. The purpose of this study was to (a) examine if child fussy temperament moderates the association between maternal delinquency and depression and CP use; and (b) better understand potential predictors of CP use by controlling for environmental and genetic differences.
We examined data collected from 1,379 biological children born to a nationally representative group of women who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Child temperament was measured by maternal reports using items from the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (Rothbart, 1981). Maternal depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (Radloff, 1977) and maternal delinquency was assessed using items adapted from a self-reported offending measure (Loeber, Stouthamer-Loeber, Van Kammen, & Farrington, 1989). Finally, mothers’ use of CP was measured using a shortened version of the Home Observation Measurement of the Environment (Caldwell & Bradley, 1984).
Multileveling modeling as implemented in Mplus 7.31 was used to investigate if child temperament moderates the association between the use of CP and (a) maternal depression; and (b) maternal delinquency. In the population model comparing unrelated offspring and mothers, neither the interaction between child temperament and maternal depression (b = -.056, p = .441) nor that of child temperament and maternal delinquency (b = .041, p = .630) were significant. We did, however, find main effects of maternal depression and child temperament on the use of CP when controlling for family income, maternal IQ, maternal delinquency, and race. Mothers who reported higher levels of depression were significantly more likely to have used CP compared to mothers who reported lower levels of depression (b = .233, p = .012). Additionally, mothers were significantly more likely to use CP if they reported their child as having a fussy temperament (b = .174, p = .041). In the model comparing siblings, neither child temperament nor maternal depression were predictive of CP; offspring who were high in fussiness were no more likely to receive CP than their siblings who were low in fussiness, nor were mothers who scored high on depression more likely to use CP than their sisters who scored low on depression. These findings suggest that links found between temperament and maternal depression to CP use are at least partially confounded by unmeasured genetic and environmental confounds.
While maternal depression and child temperament appear to be risk markers for CP, these results suggest that they may not be causally related to use of CP. Further research is required to understand the specific variables responsible for associations between maternal depression and child temperament to CP, as such information could be used to enhance interventions intended to reduce and prevent the use of CP.

Authors

• Kirsten L. Anderson, University of Dayton
  Presenting Author

• Jackson Goodnight, University of Dayton
  Non-Presenting Author