Using Bayesian analysis to examine associations between spanking and child externalizing behavior across race and ethnic groups

• Main Authors: Castillo, B. (Author), Grogan-Kaylor, A. (Author), Klein, S. (Author), Lee, S.J (Author), Ma, J. (Author), Ward, K.P (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2018
• Subjects: African American; African Americans; Article; Bayes theorem; Bayes Theorem; Bayesian statistics; Caucasian; child; Child; child behavior; Child Behavior; Child Behavior Checklist; child externalizing behavior; child parent relation; Child, Preschool; clinical trial; controlled study; corporal punishment; Corporal punishment; ethnic group; Ethnic Groups; ethnology; European Continental Ancestry Group; female; Female; Hispanic; Hispanic Americans; human; Humans; income; Income; infant; major clinical study; male; Male; multicenter study; Parents; Physical punishment; preschool child; problem behavior; Problem Behavior; psychology; punishment; Punishment; race difference; regression analysis; spanking; United States; urban area
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 While corporal punishment is widely understood to have undesirable associations with children's behavior problems, there remains controversy as to whether such effects are consistent across different racial or ethnic groups. We employed a Bayesian regression analysis, which allows for the estimation of both similarities and differences across groups, to study whether there are differences in the relationship of corporal punishment and children's behavior problems using a diverse, urban sample of U.S. families (n = 2653). There is some moderation of the relationship between corporal punishment and child behavior by race or ethnicity. However, corporal punishment is associated with increases in behavior problems for all children. Thus, our findings add evidence from a new analytical lens that corporal punishment is consistently linked to increased externalizing behavior across African American, White, or Hispanic children, even after earlier externalizing behavior is controlled for. Our findings suggest that corporal punishment has detrimental consequences for all children and that all parents, regardless of their racial or ethnic background, should be advised to use alternatives to corporal punishment. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd