The Relationship Between Physical Discipline and Child Behavior Problems: A Study of Ethnic Group Differences

2004

Polaha, J., Shapiro, S.K., Larzelere, R., & Pettit, G.S. (2004, in press). Objective: The present study examines ethnic group differences in the relation between parents’ use of physical discipline and children’s externalizing behavior problems in younger children and assesses both same-source and distinct-source data. Design: One-hundred twelve mothers of African American (N=63) and European American (N=49) children were interviewed regarding their parenting strategies and their child’s behavior. Preschool teacher ratings of child behavior were obtained. Results: Regression analyses revealed significant main effects for gender and discipline on externalizing behavior problems. All two-way interactions with ethnicity were significant, but only when predicting teacher-rated behavior problems. Post-hoc analyses showed that for African American males, there was a significant negative correlation between mother-reported physical discipline and teacher-rated externalizing behavior problems. Similar correlations fo African American females and the European American gender groups were not significant. Conclusions: These findings show ethnic differences in the relation between physical discipline and externalizing behavior problems for young children when distinct-source information is obtained. The study extends the literature by showing this effect is particularly strong for boys.

Peer-reviewed publications in scholarly journals Published/In Press

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