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Corporal Punishment by Mothers and Development of Children's Cognitive Ability: A Longitudinal Study of Two Nationally Representative Age Cohorts

NCJ Number
228664
Journal
Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, & Trauma Volume: 18 Issue: 5 Dated: July-August 2009 Pages: 459-483
Author(s)
Murray A. Straus; Mallie J. Paschall
Date Published
August 2009
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This study tested the hypothesis that a parent's use of corporal punishment (CP) with a child, such as slapping his/her hand or "spanking," is linked with the child's restricted development of cognitive ability.
Abstract
Although almost all U.S. children experience at least some CP, the differences in how often mothers use it provides sufficient variance in CP to test the hypothesis that the more CP experienced by a child, the slower the development of cognitive ability. Multiple regression and ANCOVA confirmed this hypothesis. Children 2-4 years old who experienced no CP in either of the two sample weeks gained a mean of 5.5 cognitive-ability points. (on a scale with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15) relative to children whose mothers used CP. Similarly, children 5-9 years old whose mothers did not use CP in either week gained a mean of about 2 points relative to children whose mothers used CP. Conversely, for both age groups, CP was associated with a decrease from Time 1 (T1) to Time 2 (T2) cognitive-ability test score. These findings are consistent with the two previous studies of the relationship of CP to cognitive ability (Power and Chapieski, 1986). The sample was drawn from women who were first interviewed in 1979 as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. This study included an oversample of low-income and minority youth. The 1,510 children in this study were those with no missing data on any of the variables needed for the study. For both age groups, cognitive ability was measured at both T1 and 4 years later at T2. Tests for cognitive ability at each of these times were age appropriate. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 50 references