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Abstract
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Question What is the association of corporal punishment with physical dating violence?
Design Cohort study.
Setting Cohort originally from a Texas high school.
Participants Young adults originally recruited as high school students.
Intervention Corporal punishment as a child.
Outcomes Perpetrating physical dating violence.
Main Results Corporal punishment was associated with perpetrating physical dating violence, adjusted OR 1.29, (95% CI 1.02-1.62).
Conclusions Corporal punishment is associated with dating violence.
Commentary Physical punishment of children remains a common disciplinary practice despite the mounting body of evidence that it increases the risk that children will engage in aggressive behavior and experience other deleterious outcomes.1 Temple et al add to this literature by demonstrating that children who were physically punished as children have a 29% greater risk of a specific form of aggression as young adults, namely dating violence, than do children who were not physically punished. In comparison, a history of physical abuse increased the odds that an individual perpetrates dating violence by only 12%; in other words, less than one-half the risk conveyed by a history of physical punishment during childhood. These results support the notion that physical punishment teaches children that violence is acceptable in close relationships and supports the conclusion that physical punishment alone, over and above any experiences of physical abuse, is linked with higher levels of aggression in young adulthood. The strengths of the study, namely its relatively large and racially and ethnically diverse sample and its strong statistical methods, are tempered by the cross-sectional study design. Future research is needed to confirm these findings with a longitudinal design paired with causal effects modeling.
Language: en |