Physical Punishment of Children in Urban African American Neighborhoods

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Use and support of physical punishment are known to be elevated among individuals who are African American. Less is known about the association between a neighborhood’s racial composition and the frequency with which its children experience physical discipline. This study aims to (a) determine if children in mostly Black urban neighborhoods are subjected to spanking and other physical punishments more commonly than those living elsewhere and (b) assess the degree to which neighborhood characteristics (besides racial makeup) account for associations between neighborhood racial composition and physical punishment use therein. Ordinary least squares regression models are used to analyze data regarding 3-year-old children from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which is designed to be nationally representative of births in US cities with at least 200,000 residents. It is found that greater proportions of mothers in mostly Black neighborhoods than in other neighborhoods reported any past-year use of spanking, hitting with a hard object, and slapping, as well as more than 20 past-year occurrences of hitting with a hard object and slapping. Furthermore, a direct association is found between the percentage of African American residents in a neighborhood and an index of physical punishment usage, which is robust to controls for a variety of characteristics of the mother’s household and neighborhood. It is important to account for greater exposure to physical punishment as a factor that may disadvantage children growing up in mostly Black communities.