Maternal use of physical punishment in response to child misbehavior: implications for child abuse prevention

Abstract

Objective: The objective was to examine the roles of cognition and affect in maternal use of physical punishment. Method: Through a review of the literature, distal and proximal predictors (cognitive and affective) of physical punishment use were identified. One hundred and ten mothers of 3-year-old children were interviewed regarding two disciplinary situations that occurred during the previous 2-week period that elicited their strongest reactions: one which resulted in the use of physical punishment (if this occurred) and one which did not. The individual and combined contributions of the predictors of physical punishment use were analyzed through logistic regression. Results: The predictors of physical punishment following individual analyses were: maternal attitude toward physical punishment, maternal perception of the seriousness and intent of the child misbehavior, and maternal anger in response to the child misbehavior. Through multivariate analysis 54% of the variance in physical punishment use was explained. Conclusions: Both cognitive and affective factors affect the decision to use physical punishment with children. These findings can be useful in establishing parenting educational programming that is directed at decreasing the rates of physical punishment and subsequently child physical abuse.