Maternal use of physical punishment in response to child misbehavior: implications for child abuse prevention.
OBJECTIVE
The objective was to examine the roles of cognition and affect in maternal use of physical punishment.


METHODS
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.
Ateah
Christine A
CA
Faculty of Nursing, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2.
Durrant
Joan E
JE
D000300:Adoption; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016487:Parenting; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011678:Punishment