SPANKING BY PARENTS AND SUBSEQUENT ANTISOCIAL-BEHAVIOR OF CHILDREN

Objective: To deal with the causal relationship between corporal punis hment and antisocial behavior (ASB) by considering the level of ASB of the child at the start of the study. Methods: Data from interviews wi th a national sample of 807 mothers of children aged 6 to 9 years in t he National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement. Analysis of variance was used to test the hypothesis that when parents use corpor al punishment to correct ASB, it increases subsequent ASB. The analysi s controlled for the level of ASB at the start of the study, family so cioeconomic status, sex of the child, and the extent to which the home provided emotional support and cognitive stimulation. Results: Forty- four percent of the mothers reported spanking their children during th e week prior to the study and they spanked them an average of 2.1 time s that week. The more spanking at the start of the period, the higher the level of ASB 2 years later. The change is unlikely to be owing to the child's tendency toward ASB or to confounding with demographic cha racteristics or with parental deficiency in other key aspects of socia lization because those variables were statistically controlled. Conclu sions: When parents use corporal punishment to reduce ASB, the long-te rm effect tends to be the opposite. The findings suggest that if paren ts replace corporal punishment by nonviolent modes of discipline, it c ould reduce the risk of ASB among children and reduce the level of vio lence in American society.