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Predicting Adult Approval of Corporal Punishment From Childhood Parenting Experiences

NCJ Number
122319
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1989) Pages: 339-351
Author(s)
C L Ringwalt; D C Browne; L B Rosenbloom; G A Evans; J B Kotch
Date Published
1989
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This study explores the relationship between mothers' approval of corporal punishment and the degree to which they themselves were subjected to violence as children.
Abstract
Considered as additional contributing factors are: (1) whether the mothers as children were punished by their own parents, (2) whether they perceived such punishment as unfair, and (3) the degree of parental nurture they experienced as children. The sample consisted of 330 new mothers whose mother and father both lived in the home when they were 14 years of age. Respondents were interviewed at home one to two months following their infants' discharge from the hospital. After controlling for race and income, no relationship was found between approval of corporal punishment and the violence to which mothers were subjected as children. However, significant associations were found between such approval and: (1) whether mothers were punished by their parents, and (2) maternal (but not paternal) nurture. Perceptions that parental punishment was unfair failed to contribute to such approval. Altogether, parental factors in mothers' childhoods, excluding race and income, accounted for 8.9 percent of the variance in approval of corporal punishment. 4 tables, 37 references. (Publisher abstract)