Abstract
This study explores the relationship between mothers' approval of corporal punishment and the degree to which they themselves were subjected to violence as children. Considered as additional contributing factors are: (1) whether the mothers as children were punished by their own parents, (2) whether they perceived such punishment as unfair, and (3) the degree of parental nurture they experienced as children. The sample consisted of 330 new mothers whose mother and father both lived in the home when they were 14 years of age. Respondents were interviewed at home one to two months following their infants' discharge from the hospital. After controlling for race and income, no relationship was found between approval of corporal punishment and the violence to which mothers were subjected as children. However, significant associations were found between such approval and: (1) whether mothers were punished by their parents, and (2) maternal (but not paternal) nurture. Perceptions that parental punishment was unfair failed to contribute to such approval. Altogether, parental factors in mothers' childhoods, excluding race and income, accounted for 8.9% of the variance in approval of corporal punishment.
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Ringwalt, C.L., Browne, D.C., Rosenbloom, L.B. et al. Predicting adult approval of corporal punishment from childhood parenting experiences. J Fam Viol 4, 339–351 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00978575
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00978575