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Parent and Child Reporting of Corporal Punishment: New Evidence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study

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Abstract

This paper provides new evidence on parent and child reporting of corporal punishment, drawing on data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort study of families in 20 medium to large US cities. In separate interviews, 9 year olds and their mothers (N = 1,180 families) were asked about the frequency of corporal punishment in the past year. Mothers and children were asked questions with slightly different response categorize which are harmonized in our analysis. Overall, children reported more high frequency corporal punishment (spanking or other physical punishment more than ten times per year) than their mothers did; this discrepancy was seen in both African-American and Hispanic families (but not White families), and was evident for both boys and girls. These results suggest that the reporting of the frequency of corporal punishment is sensitive to the identity of the reporter and that in particular child reports may reveal more high frequency punishment than maternal reports do. However, predictors of high frequency punishment were similar regardless of reporter identity; in both cases, risk of high frequency punishment was higher when the child was African-American or had high previous levels of behavior problems.

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Acknowledgments

The project was supported by award numbers R01HD066054, R01HD036916, and R24HD058486 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, Columbia University, 1255 Amsterdam Ave. 719E, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    William Schneider, Michael MacKenzie & Jane Waldfogel

  2. Teacher’s College and College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Jeanne Brooks-Gunn

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  1. William Schneider
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  2. Michael MacKenzie
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  3. Jane Waldfogel
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  4. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
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Correspondence to William Schneider.

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Schneider, W., MacKenzie, M., Waldfogel, J. et al. Parent and Child Reporting of Corporal Punishment: New Evidence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Child Ind Res 8, 347–358 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-014-9258-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-014-9258-2

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