The Effect Of Corporal Punishment On Antisocial Behavior In Children

Summary: This study had three aims: to examine the effect of corporal punishment on antisocial behavior of children using stronger statistical controls than the previous literature in this area; to examine whether the effect of corporal punishment on antisocial behavior is nonlinear; and to investigate whether or not the effects of corporal punishment on antisocial behavior differ across racial and ethnic groups.

Method:  The study used a non-experimental design and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The analysis was conducted using fixed effects methods to control for observed independent variables as well as all unobserved time invariant variables. Dummy variables were constructed for corporal punishment to allow for potential nonlinear effects. Interaction terms of corporal punishment and racial or ethnic group were constructed to test for the possibility of differing effects of corporal punishment on antisocial behavior across racial and ethnic groups.

Results: Corporal punishment has a nontrivial effect on children’s antisocial behavior in later years despite the strong controls introduced by the fixed effects models. Both lower and higher levels of corporal punishment appear to have this effect. The analysis provides no evidence for differences in the effect of corporal punishment across racial and ethnic groups.

Conclusions: This study provides further and methodologically rigorous support for the growing literature that suggests that the use of corporal punishment is associated with an increase in children’s antisocial behavior.

Owner: Grogan-Kaylor, A.

Web: 
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~agrogan/

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