Poster #63 - Preschoolers’ and their Caregivers Perspectives on Corporal Punishment

• In Event: Poster Session 15

Abstract

There is a growing consensus in the literature that children who are subjected to corporal punishment are at an increased risk for developing behavioral and socio-emotional problems in both the short- and long-term (Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, 2016). However, corporal punishment is still a widely used form of discipline, especially within the Conservative Protestant religion; their greater use of corporal punishment may be attributed to their literal interpretation of the Bible (Ellison & Bradshaw, 2009). Given the normative use of corporal punishment for this community, it is possible that children within this religious affiliation would be less negative about this form of discipline than children within other religious affiliations. The relationship between Conservative Protestant preschoolers and their parents may mediate children’s perspectives on corporal punishment. This study compared preschoolers’ and their mothers’ views about the acceptability, fairness, and effectiveness of spanking – the most common form of corporal punishment – from within and outside of the Conservative Protestant community. Children and their caregivers were recruited from Western North Carolina (n = 43) and Central Massachusetts (n = 17) and complete data was obtained from 60 preschoolers (n = 30 females, n = 30 males, Mage = 61.46 months, SD = 6.12) and 62 caregivers (n = 60 mothers, n = 2 fathers). Participants were classified as Conservative Protestant or non-Conservative Protestant based on their caregiver’s responses to the religiosity questionnaire. Preschoolers aged 4-to 5-years-old and their mother (or primary caregiver) independently heard nine vignettes about characters who committed common moral (e.g., hitting), social conventional (e.g., violating social conventions, such as using your hands to eat) or prudential (e.g., lighting matches) transgressions and answered several questions about the appropriateness of using spanking as a consequence for each misbehavior. Participants responded using a five-point faces scale that depicted five faces, ranging from extremely unhappy to extremely happy (Tomlinson et al., 2010). Caregivers also answered a questionnaire about their religious beliefs and parenting practices. The results indicated that overall, children (regardless of their parent’s religious affiliation) viewed spanking as not okay, unfair, and that it would make the character feel sad. Conservative Protestant caregivers viewed spanking as more appropriate, fair, effective, and the transgressions as more serious than non-Conservative Protestant caregivers. Furthermore, acceptability of spanking varied by transgression, where mothers viewed spanking as the most okay for prudential transgressions and children for social transgressions. The current study is a first step in exploring mother-child beliefs about corporal punishment within and outside of a religious community that supports it. The findings from this study point to the need for parenting interventions that encourage the use of nonviolent discipline. Also, the current study focused primarily on mothers; future research should explore the link between father’s religiosity, their parenting practices, and children’s developmental outcomes. Exploring children’s perspectives on violence and their relationship with their parents or caregivers is critical to understanding children’s behavioral and socio-emotional development and their long-term outcomes.

Authors

• Marissa Rose Sariol-Clough, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• Carolyn M Palmquist, Amherst College