Harsh Corporal Punishment Research Articles

The Symptomatology and Psychosocial Risk Factors in Developing Callous-Unemotional Trait During Childhood and Adolescence

This paper reviews the current literature on the symptomatology and underlying psychosocial mechanisms for developing callous-unemotional (CU) traits across childhood and adolescence. CU traits include a lack of empathy, interpersonal callousness, and restricted affection. As much research has posited its crucial relatedness to multiple psychopathologies, including antisocial personality disorder, there is a pressing need for a more sophisticated understanding of the etiology, enabling the development of early interventions for CU traits. The current paper considers three aspects in its contribution to the etiology of CU traits: traumatic life events, parental influences, and interpersonal relationships. Current knowledge suggests that although the direct association between childhood maltreatment and CU traits is evident, many underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Additionally, parent influences may exert influence via insecure attachment relationships between infant and caregiver, affecting the internal working model, and via low childhood anxiety and harsh corporal punishment. The symptomatology of CU traits may also be consolidated by actively seeking to affiliate with deviant peers in school. These actions further reinforce their problematic belief in the social acceptance of aggressive behaviours to solve problems. This paper provides some reference for research in related fields. Future research should further elaborate on the potential implication of gender differences in literature; the psychosocial findings should incorporate the genetic-biological perspective in forming an integrated and coherent understanding of CU traits; and research should continue to address the potentiality in the clinical implication of research findings to develop valuable interventions for relevant psychopathologies.

The effect of maternal education on parenting and early childhood development: An instrumental variables approach.

Maternal education is often considered an important determinant of children's early development. However, there is little empirical evidence on whether it is maternal education that contributes to better developmental outcomes or other ecological factors that relate to both education and children's development. This study used data on 4,874 mother-child (M age = 47.7 months) dyads from Uganda of the 2016 Demographic and Health Survey to assess the effects of maternal education on parenting and children's development. Taking advantage of a natural experiment with an instrumental variables approach, the study identified positive causal impacts of maternal schooling on children's development. Additional years of schooling also increased maternal engagement in stimulating activities, children's attendance to early childhood education programs, and reduced harsh corporal punishment. A mediation analysis suggested that increases in maternal stimulation and children's attendance to early childhood education programs and reductions in harsh corporal punishment partially explain the effects of maternal education on children's development. The positive impacts of education on parenting and child development indicate the need for more efforts to expand access to education in Uganda and other low- and- middle-income countries, including the abolishment of school fees for primary education. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Dimensions of physical punishment and their associations with children's cognitive performance and school adjustment

This study examined how a range of physical punishment measures, ranging from mild corporal punishment to physical abuse, are associated with cognitive performance, school engagement, and peer isolation over a 3- year span among 658 children initially observed between the ages of 8 and 14. Physical punishment was captured in three groups: mild corporal punishment, harsh corporal punishment, and physical abuse, and both caregiver- and child-reported punishment measures were considered. After accounting for socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, only Ninitial exposure to physical abuse was significantly associated with declines in cognitive performance. However, all forms of physical punishment were associated with declines in school engagement, and harsh corporal punishment was associated with increased peer isolation. Our findings were relatively consistent regardless of whether physical punishment was reported by the child or caregiver. Overall, our findings suggest that the prevention of physical abuse may enhance children's cognitive performance, but that alone may not be sufficient to ensure children are engaged and well-adjusted in school.

Participatory Action Research with Filipino Street Youth: Their Voice and Action against Corporal Punishment

The study investigated perspectives on corporal punishment of adolescents from street families in Manila, with the aim of creating actions that address the issue in that specific context. Participatory action research (PAR) was employed as a research design, collecting qualitative data with 11 youth, selected through purposive sampling. Results showed that harsh corporal punishment is highly normative in that context, most frequently physically and emotionally abusive, and often co‐occurs with verbal abuse. It has negative effects on the youth's feelings towards, and their relationship with, their parents, and it leads to defiant behaviours. The youth planned an action project to address the issue of corporal punishment in their families: producing a video clip and holding a parents' meeting. Through the PAR process, the youth were empowered to voice their feelings and perceptions and to take action to address the issue of corporal punishment in their families and in the wider community. The study demonstrated how PAR can serve as a pathway towards empowerment for a very vulnerable group.‘Investigated perspectives on corporal punishment of adolescents from street families in Manila’Key Practitioner Messages: Little is known about children's perceptions related to corporal punishment, and children remain powerless to address this issue which most often happens in the intimate family context. Harsh corporal punishment is a highly normative experience for street youth in Manila, and is often physically and verbally abusive. The PAR process served as a pathway to empowerment for the youth, enabling them to address the issue of corporal punishment in their context. ‘Little is known about children's perceptions related to corporal punishment’

Corporal punishment and children's externalizing problems: A cross-sectional study of Tanzanian primary school aged children

The adverse effect of harsh corporal punishment on mental health and psychosocial functioning in children has been repeatedly suggested by studies in industrialized countries. Nevertheless, corporal punishment has remained common practice not only in many homes, but is also regularly practiced in schools, particularly in low-income countries, as a measure to maintain discipline. Proponents of corporal punishment have argued that the differences in culture and industrial development might also be reflected in a positive relationship between the use of corporal punishment and improving behavioral problems in low-income nations. In the present study we assessed the occurrence of corporal punishment at home and in school in Tanzanian primary school students. We also examined the association between corporal punishment and externalizing problems. The 409 children (52% boys) from grade 2 to 7 had a mean age of 10.49 (SD=1.89) years. Nearly all children had experienced corporal punishment at some point during their lifetime both in family and school contexts. Half of the respondents reported having experienced corporal punishment within the last year from a family member. A multiple sequential regression analysis revealed that corporal punishment by parents or by caregivers was positively related to children's externalizing problems. The present study provides evidence that Tanzanian children of primary school age are frequently exposed to extreme levels of corporal punishment, with detrimental consequences for externalizing behavior. Our findings emphasize the need to inform parents, teachers and governmental organizations, especially in low-income countries, about the adverse consequences of using corporal punishment be it at home or at school.

The Invisible War: Indigenous Devotions, Discipline, and Dissent in Colonial Mexico

This meticulously researched and beautifully written work is a major contribution to our understanding of religion in indigenous communities and the Catholic Church in central Mexico and Oaxaca. Based on Nahuatl and Zapotec language texts and pictorials from Oaxaca and central Mexico, as well as ecclesiastical and civil sources in Spanish, Tavárez delves into three centuries of local indigenous religious practice and Spanish officials’ attempts to maintain orthodoxy. Clerics cast a wary eye generally on indigenous practices that were ostensibly framed as Christian worship but were potentially heterodox in aspect or essence. The church systematically pursued what Tavárez calls the “invisible war,” rooting out evidence of idolatry and creating the framework to discipline its practitioners. Tavárez utilizes what he calls “microsociological, ‘thick’ ethno-historical narrative and sociocultural and linguistic description of Nahua and Zapotec devotions” (p. 271). Although he emphasizes the narrative and the descriptive forms, he then closely analyzes the texts to reveal deep structures. In examining diverse cases found over an extensive time frame in Zapotec and Nahua regions, he pays close attention to aspects of Mesoamerican culture that give rise to these devotions, but emphasizes particular individuals, communities, and devotions as being uniquely local. Scholars of Mesoamerica have long recognized the importance of the particular and the local, especially when it is all too easy to make bland generalizations from sources rich in empirical data. Tavárez argues that superficial resemblances of some Mesoamerican devotions could mislead scholars in seeing a Mesoamerican “peasant Christianity” similar to that posited for early modern Spain. He considers whether indigenous devotions could be a form of dissent, and concludes that the indigenous did not necessarily consciously see the devotions as resistance.Tavárez’s close reading of ecclesiastical prosecutions of idolatry is multifaceted, showing how many accusations of idolatry were rooted in local conflicts, linking both indigenous accusers and accused in the mechanism of ecclesiastical investigation. The prosecutions preserved evidence of not only ritual practices but also their significance in the social context. Denunciations served the Spanish ecclesiastics in bringing suspicious indigenous individual and community practices to their attention. For the church, extirpation of idolatry served the true faith, but it was also a means for indigenous individuals to settle scores and shift local power relations.Although Spanish ecclesiastical and civil officials pursued the extirpation of idolatry over the whole colonial era — with waxing and waning of zeal and employing a variety of strategies — the mid-seventeenth century marks a new phase of institutional pursuit of idolatry. Tavárez characterizes this period as one in which procedures against idolaters were centralized and institutionalized. With harsh corporal punishment and exile considered not effective against idolaters, the church established in Oaxaca a perpetual prison for indigenous religious leaders to quarantine the idolatrous “contagion.” But the mid-eighteenth-century Oaxaca prison for teachers of idolatry survived only until the 1760s, with the reasons for its demise somewhat murky.Particularly valuable is Tavárez’s analysis of alphabetic and pictorial texts by indigenous religious experts. These indigenous “literate idolatries” were created by elite Nahua and Zapotec writers. Copied and read, these alphabetic and pictorial texts circulated over an extended period of time, establishing authority for their creators and interpreters and helping to ensure the perpetuation of devotions. Tavárez contends that the texts did not displace orality but also argues for their importance in local devotions.Tavárez stresses the local and the particular in his analysis, but he does formulate some generalizations in the social sphere. Gender and social status played roles in accusations of idolatry. In the cases in the diocese of Mexico from the 1520s through the eighteenth century, Tavárez found that early accusations against indigenous lords declined, while in the mid-seventeenth century, accusations against commoner women increased. Gender parity of accusations suggests a change in the religious sphere, putting women on a more equal basis with men; but Tavárez also suggests this could be influenced by ecclesiastical biases against women, which viewed women as more vulnerable to the Devil’s influence. In Oaxaca, there were relatively few cases against women. Tavárez argues that this finding might not result from the lack of females involved in idolatrous devotions but from the fact that they did not practice in public, collective spaces over which ecclesiastics were more vigilant.Tavárez posits for colonial central Mexico and Oaxaca a “colonial archipelago of faith.” His exploration of those islands and his speculations about the unknown waters is nuanced, engaging, and thought provoking. I hope that this book will be published in paperback, since it could have a wider readership among those interested in the history of religion and of Latin America.

Exposure to Harsh Parenting and Pornography as Explanations for Males’ Sexual Coercion and Females’ Sexual Victimization

Sexual violence against women is a major concern to researchers and policy makers, as well as to the general public. This study uses a sample of more than 2,000 college students to investigate the extent to which exposure to harsh parenting practices and sexually explicit materials contributes to perpetration and victimization. Findings indicate that frequent corporal punishment in the family of origin combined with consumption of pornographic materials increased the probability that males reported engaging in coercive sexual practices. For females, both frequent corporal punishment and exposure to paternal hostility combined with consumption of pornographic materials were associated with higher levels of reported sexual victimization. These results provide increased understanding of the impact of pornography use among a nonclinical sample, as well as the consequences of experiencing harsh corporal punishment in one's family of origin, on the sexual victimization of females.

Harsh corporal punishment is associated with increased T2 relaxation time in dopamine-rich regions

Harsh corporal punishment (HCP) was defined as frequent parental administration of corporal punishment (CP) for discipline, with occasional use of objects such as straps, or paddles. CP is linked to increased risk for depression and substance abuse. We examine whether long-term exposure to HCP acts as sub-traumatic stressor that contributes to brain alterations, particularly in dopaminergic pathways, which may mediate their increased vulnerability to drug and alcohol abuse. Nineteen young adults who experienced early HCP but no other forms of maltreatment and twenty-three comparable controls were studied. T2 relaxation time (T2-RT) measurements were performed with an echo planar imaging TE stepping technique and T2 maps were calculated and analyzed voxel-by-voxel to locate regional T2-RT differences between groups. Previous studies indicated that T2-RT provides an indirect index of resting cerebral blood volume. Region of interest (ROI) analyses were also conducted in caudate, putamen, nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, thalamus, globus pallidus and cerebellar hemispheres. Voxel-based relaxometry showed that HCP was associated with increased T2-RT in right caudate and putamen. ROI analyses also revealed increased T2-RT in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, substantia nigra, thalamus and accumbens but not globus pallidus or cerebellum. There were significant associations between T2-RT measures in dopamine target regions and use of drugs and alcohol, and memory performance. Alteration in the paramagnetic or hemodynamic properties of dopaminergic cell body and projection regions were observed in subjects with HCP, and these findings may relate to their increased risk for drug and alcohol abuse.

Cerebellar Lingula Size and Experiential Risk Factors Associated with High Levels of Alcohol and Drug Use in Young Adults

Previous studies have reported cerebellar abnormalities or static ataxia associated with risk for chronic use of alcohol and drugs. Adverse childhood experience is another strong risk factor for later substance abuse. We therefore sought to ascertain the relationship between morphological phenotypes of the lingula (lobule I) of the anterior cerebellar vermis, and exposure to emotional (EM) versus physical (PM) maltreatment, on the degree of ongoing alcohol or drug use. The study design consisted of a cross-sectional in vivo neuroimaging study, utilizing retrospective assessment of maltreatment history and self-reports of alcohol and substance use. Study participants were 153 subjects (54 M/99F, 21.9 +/- 2.2 years) selected for imaging from a database of 1,402 community participants 18-25 years of age, who completed a detailed online screening instrument and met rigorous inclusion/exclusion criteria. Subjects were exposed to only physical abuse or harsh corporal punishment (HCP; PM group, n = 37) and parental verbal abuse and/or witnessing domestic violence (EM group, n = 58) or had no history of maltreatment or axis I disorders (n = 58). The main outcome measures consisted of the gray matter volume of lobule I as measured by manual tracing, number and type of alcoholic beverages consumed during a drinking session, number of sessions per month, and monthly drug use, along with family history of drug and alcohol abuse. Lingula thickness was not attenuated by alcohol use or maltreatment history. However, increased lingula thickness was associated with greater consumption of drugs and hard liquor, particularly in physically maltreated subjects who consumed 2.5- and 2.7-fold more alcohol and used drugs 6.1- and 7.8-fold more frequently than controls or EM subjects, respectively. In conclusion, physical maltreatment was observed to interact with cerebellar morphology resulting in a strong association with alcohol and substance use. Lingula thickness may represent a novel, experientially sensitive, phenotypic risk factor for enhanced alcohol and drug use that perhaps modulates sensitivity to these agents.

Reduced prefrontal cortical gray matter volume in young adults exposed to harsh corporal punishment

Objective Harsh corporal punishment (HCP) during childhood is a chronic, developmental stressor associated with depression, aggression and addictive behaviors. Exposure to traumatic stressors, such as sexual abuse, is associated with alteration in brain structure, but nothing is known about the potential neurobiological consequences of HCP. The aim of this study was to investigate whether HCP was associated with discernible alterations in gray matter volume (GMV) using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Methods 1455 young adults (18–25 years) were screened to identify 23 with exposure to HCP (minimum 3 years duration, 12 episodes per year, frequently involving objects) and 22 healthy controls. High-resolution T1-weighted MRI datasets were obtained using Siemens 3 T trio scanner. Results GMV was reduced by 19.1% in the right medial frontal gyrus (medial prefrontal cortex; MPFC, BA10) ( P = 0.037, corrected cluster level), by 14.5% in the left medial frontal gyrus (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; DLPFC, BA9) ( P = 0.015, uncorrected cluster level) and by 16.9% in the right anterior cingulate gyrus (BA24) ( P < 0.001, uncorrected cluster level) of HCP subjects. There were significant correlations between GMV in these identified regions and performance IQ on the WAIS-III. Conclusions Exposing children to harsh HCP may have detrimental effects on trajectories of brain development. However, it is also conceivable that differences in prefrontal cortical development may increase risk of exposure to HCP.

When a Mother Strikes too Close to the Bone

This article contains an account of the author's childhood experiences of her mother's use of harsh corporal punishment. These childhood experiences, as well as other aspects of the author's family life, are largely conveyed to the reader through a combination of autoethnographic poems and prose. Through these writings the author reflects on the haunting power of childhood experiences of harsh corporal punishment.

Harsh corporal punishment of Yemeni children: Occurrence, type and associations

Objective To examine the occurrence, type and associations of harsh corporal punishment in Yemen. Methods Caregiver and teacher reports were obtained on 1,196 Yemeni 7–10-year olds obtained by systematic random sampling of children in the 1st to 4th grades of urban and rural schools. Caregivers (86% mothers) reported on disciplinary practices, socio-familial background, and child psychopathology. Teachers reported on school performance and child psychopathology. Results More than half of the rural caregivers and about a quarter of the urban caregivers reported using harsh corporal punishment (hitting children with implements, tying them up, pinching them, or biting them). Harsh corporal punishment was significantly associated with poor school performance and both behavioral and emotional difficulties. The socio-familial factors that were independently associated with harsh corporal punishment were: rural area, male gender of the child, low maternal education, and large family size. Conclusion Harsh corporal punishment is very common in Yemen. International findings suggest that the association with school failure and psychological maladjustment may well be causal. Promoting parental use of effective and non-violent disciplinary methods should be a public health priority. Practice implications: Yemen urgently needs to develop and evaluate programs that teach parents how to use culturally appropriate rewards and non-abusive sanctions to shape children's behavior without stunting their academic and emotional development. Persuading parents to adopt such approaches may need programs that focus not just on techniques but also on attitudes, e.g. challenging the commonly held belief that children will not develop properly unless they are beaten when they do wrong.

The impact of poverty and stress on the interaction of Jamaican caregivers with young children

This study assesses levels of parent–child interaction, and the impact of poverty and parental stress, using data from a national survey of Jamaican parenting practices. It reveals that 1 in every 4 parents feels trapped/controlled by their responsibilities, with the poor at increased risk of experiencing high levels of stress and their children tending to experience low levels of parent–child interaction and connectedness and subject to harsh corporal punishment. There is, however, an almost universal positive feeling about the parenting role and high reporting of enjoyment derived, suggesting that high stress does not entirely rob parents of their capacity to enjoy parenting and that parents obviously see themselves as doing the best that they can under the circumstances. The study recommends urgent social service support to highly stressed parents and the implementation of national parenting training programmes geared at helping parents to cope and teaching appropriate forms of child discipline.

A Test of Explanations for the Effect of Harsh Parenting on the Perpetration of Dating Violence and Sexual Coercion Among College Males

This study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) with a sample of 760 college males to test various hypotheses regarding the avenues whereby harsh corporal punishment and a troubled relationship with parents increase the risk that a boy will grow up to engage in sexual coercion and dating violence. We found that three variables--a general antisocial orientation, sexually permissive attitudes, and believing that violence is a legitimate component of romantic relationships--mediated most of the association between negative parenting and our two outcomes. In addition to this indirect influence, we found that harsh corporal punishment had a direct effect upon dating violence. The findings are discussed with regard to various theoretical perspectives regarding the manner in which family of origin experiences increase the chances that a young man will direct violence toward a romantic partner.

Child Discipline and Physical Abuse in Immigrant Latino Families: Reducing Violence and Misunderstandings

This article examines common areas of misunderstanding between professionals and low‐income Latino families concerning issues of physical abuse. It argues that low‐income immigrant children deserve the same protection from harsh physical punishment as all other children. This ar ticle suggests culturally competent ways for counselors to work with Latino families to eliminate all forms of violence toward children including corporal punishment. Finally, this article argues that the systemic stresses on low‐income Latino immigrant families must be acknowledged and reduced when addressing child discipline and abuse.

Socialization in the Family of Origin and Male Dating Violence: A Prospective Study

The most popular explanations for dating violence posit that it is learned in the family of origin. We specify several theoretical perspectives regarding the manner in which parental behavior might increase the probability that an adolescent will engage in dating violence. The theories were tested with panel data from a sample of 113 adolescent males. Structural equation modeling was employed to assess the extent to which various parental behaviors during early adolescence predict high school dating violence. Although frequent exposure to corporal punishment increased the risk of dating violence, this was not the case for interparental aggression, which did not predict dating violence. Low support and involvement by parents was associated with adolescent delinquency and drug use, which, in turn, predicted involvement in dating violence. Key Words: dating violence, intergenerational transmission, parenting, socialization. Evidence from a variety of studies indicates that physical violence occurs in at least 20% of all dating relationships (Arias, Samios, & O'Leary, 1987; Riggs, O'Leary, & Breslin, 1990; Sigelman, Berry, & Wiles, 1984; White & Koss, 1991). Although most of this aggression consists of pushing, grabbing, or slapping, from 1% to 3% of participants in college samples report that they have experienced severe forms of aggression such as beatings or assaults with an object (Arias et al., 1987; Makepeace, 1981, 1986; Riggs, 1993; Riggs et al., 1990; Sigelman et al., 1984). Research indicates that males and females are equally likely to engage in dating violence. However, women are at much greater risk than men for sustaining injuries from dating aggression (Arias et al., 1987; Bookwala, Frieze, Smith, & Ryan, 1992; Makepeace, 1986; Riggs, 1993; Stets & Pirog-Good, 1987; Sugarman & Hotaling, 1989). The study of dating violence is important for two reasons. First, such behavior often results in physical and emotional injury. Makepeace (1986), for example, found that 50% of female college students who experienced dating aggression sustained physical injuries as a result of the assault. Second, there is reason to believe that dating violence is often a precursor to spousal abuse. Many battered women report that they were first assaulted by their husband during courtship (Kelly & Loesch, 1983; Roscoe & Benaske, 1985). Thus research on dating violence may further our understanding of the etiology of marital violence. The most popular explanation for dating violence is that it is a learned behavior acquired in the family of origin. Witnessing parents' marital aggression or being the victim of harsh corporal punishment may greatly increase the chances that a child will grow up to use violence in dating relationships. Although this idea is widely accepted, investigations of the hypothesis have provided mixed results. Such inconsistent findings may be a consequence of methodological deficiencies inherent in much of the prior research. In the study presented here, we specify three avenues whereby parental behavior might increase an adolescent's risk for dating violence. In an effort to avoid the limitations associated with previous studies, we use parent and child reports and a prospective design to evaluate the adequacy of these three hypotheses regarding experiences in the family of origin and dating aggression. PARENTAL BEHAVIOR AND DATING VIOLENCE Researchers usually specify observational learning as the process whereby parents influence the probability that their children will be violent in intimate relationships. Some describe the learning process as one of imitation; others emphasize lessons about the legitimacy of violence in intimate relationships. The imitation explanation asserts that children learn about romantic relationships by observing interactions between their parents. Children exposed to violent parental interaction learn that aggression is a normal part of romantic relationships, and as adults they are likely to engage in such behavior when interacting with a dating partner. …

Harsh Corporal Punishment versus Quality of Parental Involvement as an Explanation of Adolescent Maladjustment

The majority of United States parents support the principle of corporal punishment and utilize such methods to discipline their children (Straus & Gelles, 18; Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980). Childrearing experts (Balter, 1989; Dreikurs, 1964; Ginott, 1961; Kersey, 1991; Leach, 1989: Spock, 1988) and social scientists (Gilmartin, 1979; Hyman, 1978; Maurer, 1974; Steinmetz, 1979; Straus, 1991; White & Straus; 1981), on the other hand, have long argued that children exposed to harsh corporal punishment are apt to manifest a variety of emotional and behavioral problems. Several of these individuals have called on U.S. policymakers to follow the example of some; European countries that have banned the use of corporal punishment by teachers and parents. Much of the evidence proffered as support for the idea that corporal punishment places a child at risk for maladjustment comes from research on physically abused children. Critics have noted that most of these studies suffer from serious methodological limitations that preclude firm conclusions. The difficulties most often cited relate to sampling, measurement, and failure to utilize control groups (Aber & Cichetti, 1984; Gray, 1988; Lane & Davis, 1987; Widom, 1989b). Even if such methodological concerns were eliminated, however, these studies would remain problematic as they fail to control for dimensions of parenting (e.g., rejection, uninvolvement) that are apt to be correlated with the use of harsh corporal punishment. This omission is critical given that it may be these other aspects of parenting, rather than severe physical punishment per se, that give rise to many of the problems displayed by abused children. The present study attempts to address this deficiency. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to investigate the unique effects of corporal punishment and parental involvement on adolescent aggression, delinquency, and psychological distress. The following section briefly reviews arguments and research linking harsh corporal punishment to the development of emotional and behavioral difficulties. Reasons are presented for believing that the relationship between these two phenomena has been overstated, and competing hypotheses are identified regarding the impact of corporal punishment and parental involvement on various dimensions of adolescent adjustment. THE CONSEQUENCES OF HARSH CORPORAL PUNISHMENT It is often contended that harsh parenting practices are transmitted across generations (Gelles 1979, 1980; Steinmetz, 1987; Straus & Smith 1990a). This idea has been labeled the cycle o violence hypothesis. Consistent with this view. several studies have reported that individuals who were subjected to severe physical discipline as children are at risk for utilizing similar parenting strategies with their own offspring (Egeland, Jacobvitz, B Papatola, 1987; Herrenkohl, Herrenkohl, & Toedter, 1983; Simons, Whitbeck Conger, & Wu, 1991; Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980; Straus & Smith, 1990b). This relationship has been shown to remain even after controlling for personality, emotional well-being, socioeconomic status, and various aspects of the parenting received as a child besides level of corporal punishment, for instance, degree of parental warmth/involvement (Simons, Beaman, Conger, & Chao, 1993a; Simons et al., 1991). Thus it appears that children exposed to harsh corporal punishment learn that severe, coercive measures are a normal part of parenting, and, as adults, are apt to enact these parenting scripts in interaction with their offspring. Indeed, based upon their review, Kaufman and Zigler (1989) estimated that harshly treated children are approximately 5 times more likely to engage in abusive parenting than individuals who were not victims of severe corporal punishment. Several social scientists have argued that strict physical discipline fosters a broader set of problems than simply commitment to harsh corporal punishment as an approach to parenting. …

Effects of rapid urbanization on child behaviour and health in a part of Khartoum, Sudan—II. Psycho-social influences on behaviour

A study of child behaviour and health in a newly urbanized part of Khartoum, Sudan, was carried out in 1980 on 245 children aged 3–15 years. The same area, then rural, had been investigated in 1965. Compared to 1965, the 1980 study showed an increase of behaviour problems of boys aged 7–15. In both studies the levels of most behaviour problems were below the figures from comparable studies from developed countries. Contrary to this the physical health and nutrition had improved between 1965 and 1980. The older children of newcomers, especially blue-collar, wage-earners with low incomes showed the highest frequencies of behaviour deviances. Children who had dropped out of school had higher rates while those belonging to the best third of their grades had less behaviour problems. While polygamy did not influence the rates of behaviour problems maternal anxiety/depression and harsh corporal punishment did so. Children of school-age (7–15) showed a strong connection between poor somatic health and high rates of behaviour deviances. The impact of various cultural changes on the families and the psychological well-being of the children is discussed.