Corporal punishment by American parents: National data on prevalence, chronicity, severity, and duration, in relation to child, and family characteristics
Date
1999
Authors
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Clinical child and family psychology review
Abstract
We present data on corporal punishment (CP) by a nationally representative sample of 991
American parents interviewed in 1995. Six types of CP were examined: slaps on the hand
or leg, spanking on the buttocks, pinching, shaking, hitting on the buttocks with a belt or
paddle, and slapping in the face. The overall prevalence rate (the percentage of parents
using any of these types of CP during the previous year) was 35% for infants and reached
a peak of 94% at ages 3 and 4. Despite rapid decline after age 5, just over half of American
parents hit children at age 12, a third at age 14, and 13% at age 17. Analysis of chronicity
found that parents who hit teenage children did so an average of about six times during the
year. Severity, as measured by hitting the child with a belt or paddle, was greatest for children
age 5-12 (28% of such children). CP was more prevalent among African American and low
socioeconomic status parents, in the South, for boys, and by mothers. The pervasiveness of
CP reported in this article, and the harmful side effects of CP shown by recent longitudinal
research, indicates a need for psychology and sociology textbooks to reverse the current
tendency to almost ignore CP and instead treat it as a major aspect of the socialization
experience of American children: and for developmental psychologists to be cognizant of
the likelihood that parents are using CP far more often than even advocates of CP recommend,
and to inform parents about the risks involved. (Author Abstract)
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Keywords
child abuse, physical abuse, incidence, research
Citation
Straus, M. A., & Stewart, J. H. (1999). Corporal punishment by American parents: National data on prevalence, chronicity, severity, and duration, in relation to child and family characteristics. Clinical child and family psychology review, 2(2), 55-70.