The instrumental side of corporal punishment : Parents' reported practices and outcome expectancies

We conducted two studies to assess the relations between parental disciplinary practices and outcome expectancies. In the first study, mothers of 36-month-old children responded to vignettes about child misbehaviors. Mothers who reportedly used corporal punishment at least once a week believed that it was more likely to result in positive outcomes, including immediate child compliance, better child behavior in the long term, and less maternal guilt than mothers who never spanked or mothers who spanked only occasionally. Study 2 extended those findings by including fathers, other expectancies, and different types of misbehaviors. No significant differences between mothers and fathers were found, though effects due to membership in the group of parents who spanked were present. Key Words: corporal punishment, discipline, outcome expectancies, parenting. One of the most controversial parenting practices is the use of corporal punishment. Although the effects of corporal punishment on children is undergoing rigorous scientific debate (e.g., Larzerele, 1996; Straus, 1994), less attention has been devoted to why parents spank their children. The available research indicates that the determinants of corporal punishment are manifold, including cultural norms (Piesner, 1989), child characteristics (Day, Peterson, & McCracken, 1999), parental characteristics and beliefs (Socolar & Stein, 1995), and contextual effects, such as momentary outbursts of anger (e.g., Vasta, 1982). Our studies focus on examining aspects of parents' beliefs as determinants of parents' use of corporal punishment. Although spanking may, indeed, be the product of an angry interaction, there is evidence that many parents regard the disciplinary technique as appropriate, effective, and justifiable (Graziano, Hamblen, & Plante, 1996). Simons, Whitbeck, Conger, and Chyi-In (1991) reported that parents who believed in strict, physical discipline were more likely to use corporal punishment than other parents. In an interview study, Socolar and Stein (1995) found that mothers' beliefs in spanking were reliably correlated with their reported spanking practices, r[204] = . 46, p But what drives these instrumental beliefs? A look at social information-processing mechanisms (Crick & Dodge, 1994) provides a theoretical model to more systematically examine the instrumental view of corporal punishment. The model includes steps of encoding of cues (e.g., perceiving the appropriate information), interpreting of cues (e.g., attributing the cause), clarifying goals (e.g., determining the objective), generating responses (e.g., response access or construction), selecting the response (e.g., response decision), and enacting behavior (e.g., engaging in the action). This approach prompts several hypotheses about why some parents use corporal punishment. For example, one parent may interpret a child's transgression as more serious and, therefore, more deserving of harsh discipline than another parent. At the stage when responses are generated, parents who resort to corporal punishment may not be able to think of as many alternative disciplinary strategies as other parents. Or when selecting a response, a parent may believe that corporal punishment will result in better outcomes than alternative responses. Among the different stages of information processing, most of the research concerning disciplinary encounters has been devoted to the interpretation of cues, with a focus on attributions. …