With growing evidence of both short- and long-term detrimental effects of corporal punishment on children, efforts to end corporal punishment are working. However, evidence also suggests that the ongoing incidence of corporal punishment varies across intersectional strata. To more fully understand the variation in attitudes toward corporal punishment across subcultures, a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 factorial vignette design was used to examine (a) whether active duty military personnel, the general population, and college students differ in their attitudes about the acceptability of corporal punishment; (b) variations in attitudes according to ethnic differences after naturally controlling for socioeconomic disparity in the all-volunteer active duty military sample; and (c) whether respondent age, sex, parental status, or education predict varying attitudes toward the use of corporal punishment. Substantially more military respondents (73.6%) than the general population (42.8%) and college student (40.1%) respondents indicated the use of corporal punishment was appropriate in the vignette scenario. Similarly, if faced with the same set of circumstances, 52.4% of military respondents indicated they would spank their own child, compared to 28.7% among the general population, and 34.2% among college students. Respondents’ rationales for their responses, implications of these findings, and future directions are discussed.
Published in | Education Journal (Volume 10, Issue 6) |
DOI | 10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11 |
Page(s) | 204-217 |
Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Corporal Punishment, Military, Cultural Corporal Punishment, Spanking
[1] | U.S. Department of Education. (2016). King sends letter to states calling for an end to corporal punishment in schools, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/king-sends-letter-states-calling-end-corporal-punishment-schools |
[2] | Chung, E. K., Mathew, L., Rothkopf, A. C., Elo, I. T., Coyne, J. C., & Culhane, J. F. (2009). Parenting attitudes and infant spanking: The influence of childhood experiences. Pediatrics, 124, 278–286. doi: 10.152/peds.2008-3247. |
[3] | Combs-Orme, T., & Cain, D. S. (2008). Predictors of mothers’ use of spanking with their infants. Child Abuse & Neglect, 32, 649–657. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2007.08.006. |
[4] | Day, R. D., Peterson, G. W., & McCracken, C. (1998). Predicting spanking of younger and older children by mothers and fathers. Journal of Marriage and Family, 60, 79–94. doi: 10.2307/353443. |
[5] | Gershoff, E. T. (2002). Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviors and experiences: A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 539–579. doi: 10.1037//0033-2909.128.4.539. |
[6] | Straus, M. A. (1991). Discipline and deviance: Physical punishment of children and violence and other crime in adulthood. Social Problems, 38, 133–154. doi: 10.1525/sp.1991.38.2.03a00010. |
[7] | Straus, M. A., Douglas, E. M., & Medeiros, R. A. (2014). The primordial violence: Spanking children, psychological development, violence, and crime. New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. |
[8] | DYG. (2005). What grown-ups understand about child development: A national benchmark survey. Danbury, CT: Author. Retrieved from http://www.buildinitiative.org/WhatsNew/ViewArticle/tabid/96/ArticleId/607/What-Grown-Ups-Understand-About-Child-Development-A-National-Benchmark-Survey.aspx |
[9] | Child Trends. (2015). Attitudes toward spanking: Indicators on children and youth. Washington, DC: Child Trends. Retrieved from http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=attitudes-toward-spanking |
[10] | Graziano, A. N., & Namaste, A. A. (1990). Parental use of physical force in child discipline: A survey of 679 college students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 5, 449–463. doi: 10.1177/088626090005004002. |
[11] | Bryan, J. W., & Freed, F. W. (1982). Corporal punishment: Normative data and sociological and psychological correlates in a community college population. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 11, 77–87. doi: 10.1007/BF01834705. |
[12] | Chang, I. J., Pettit, R., W., & Katsurada, E. (2006). Where and when to spank: A comparison between U.S. and Japanese college students. Journal of Family Violence, 21, 281–286. doi: 10.1007/s10896-006-9025-3. |
[13] | Showers, J., & Johnson, C. F. (1984). Students' knowledge of child health and development: Effects on approaches to discipline. Journal of School Health, 54, 122–125. doi: 10.1111/j.1746-1561.1984.tb08785.x. |
[14] | Flynn, C. P. (1994). Regional differences in attitudes toward corporal punishment. Journal of Marriage and Family, 56, 314–324. doi: 10.2307/353102. |
[15] | Herzberger, S. D., & Tennen, H. (1985). “Snips and snails and puppy dog tails”: Gender of agent, recipient, and observer as determinants of perceptions of discipline. Sex Roles, 12, 853–865. |
[16] | Giles-Sims, J., Straus, M. A., & Sugarman, D. B. (1995). Child, maternal, and family characteristics associated with spanking. Family Relations, 44, 170–176. doi: 10.2307/584804. |
[17] | Taylor, C. A., Manganello, J. A., Lee, S. J., & Rice, J. (2010). Mothers' spanking of 3-year-old children and subsequent risk of children's aggressive behavior. Pediatrics, 125, e1057–e1065. doi: 10.1542/peds.2009-2678. |
[18] | Kennedy, J. (1995). Teachers, student teachers, paraprofessionals, and young adults’ judgements about the acceptable use of corporal punishment in the rural south. Education and Treatment of Children, 18, 53–64. |
[19] | Smith, B., Ray, G. E., Stefurak, T., & Zachar, P. A. (2007). College student evaluations of parent–child disciplinary situations. Journal of Family Violence, 22, 757–767. doi: 10.1007/s10896-007-9123-x. |
[20] | Clever, M., & Segal, D. R. (2013). The demographics of military children and families. The Future of Children, 23, 13–39. doi: 10.1353/foc.2013.0018. |
[21] | Jackson, J. J., Thoemmes, F., Jonkmann, K., Ludtke, O., & Trantwein, U. (2012). Military training and personality trait development: Does the military make the man, or does the man make the military? Psychological Science, 23, 270–277. doi: 10.1177/0956797611423545. |
[22] | Segal, D. R., & Segal, M. W. (2004). America’s military population. Population Bulletin, 59, 1–40. |
[23] | Deater-Deckard, K., Lansford, J. E., Dodge, K. A., Pettit, G. S., & Bates, J. E. (2003). The development of attitudes about physical punishment: An 8-year longitudinal study. Journal of Family Psychology, 17, 351–360. doi: 10.1037/0893-3200.17.3.351. |
[24] | Flynn, C. P. (1996). Normative support for corporal punishment: Attitudes, correlates, and implications. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 1, 47–55. doi: 10.1016/1359-1789(95)00004-6. |
[25] | McFadden, A. C., Marsh, G. E., Price, B. J., & Hwang, Y. (1992). A study of race and gender bias in the punishment of handicapped school children. The Urban review, 24, 239–251. doi: 10.1007/BF01108358. |
[26] | U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), 2013–14. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/documents/press-releases/11212016-corporal-punishment.pdf?utm_name=. Full report available at ocrdata.ed.gov |
[27] | Straus, M. A. (2001). Beating the devil out of them: Corporal punishment in American families and its effects on children (2nd ed.). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. |
[28] | Iceland, J., & Wilkes, R. (2006). Does socioeconomic status matter? Race, class, and residential segregation. Social Problems, 53, 248273. doi: 10.1525/sp.2006.53.2.248. |
[29] | Ellison, C. G., & Sherkat, D. E. (1993). Conservative Protestantism and support for corporal punishment. American Sociological Review, 58, 131–144. doi: 10.2307/2096222. |
[30] | Vittrup, B., Holden, G. W., & Buck, J. (2006). Attitudes predict the use of physical punishment: A prospective study of the emergence of disciplinary practices. Pediatrics, 117, 2055–2064. doi: 10.1542/peds.2005-2204. |
[31] | Catron, T. F., & Masters, J. C. (1993). Mother’s and children’s conceptualizations of corporal punishment. Child Development, 64, 1815–1828. |
[32] | Brown, R., & Hewstone, M. (2005). An integrative theory of intergroup contact. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 255342. doi: 10.1016/S0065-2601(05)37005-5. |
[33] | Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A.-G., & Buchner, A. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175–191. Doi: 10.3758/BF03193146. |
[34] | Cohen, J. (1988), Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Edition. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. |
[35] | Dworkin, J., Hessel, H., Gliske, K., & Rudi, J. H. (2016). A comparison of three online recruitment strategies for engaging parents. Family Relations, 65, 550–561. doi: 10.1111/fare.12206. |
[36] | Mason, W., & Suri, S. (2012). Conducting behavioral research on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 1–23. doi: 10.3758/s13428-011-0124-6. |
[37] | Brauer, P. M., Hanning, R. M., Arocha, J. F., Royall, D., Goy, R., Grant, A.,... Horrocks, J. (2009). Creating case scenarios or vignettes using factorial study design methods. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65, 1937–1947. doi: 10.111/j.1365-2648.2009.05055.x. |
[38] | Hsieh, H.-F., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15, 1277–1288. doi: 10.1177/1049732305276687. |
[39] | Fleiss, J. L. (1981). Statistical methods for rates and proportions. New York, NY: Wiley. |
[40] | Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33, 159–174. doi: 10.2307/2529310. |
[41] | Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of Groupthink. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin. |
APA Style
David Anthony Weisenhorn, Jason David Hans. (2021). Subculture Differences in Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: College Students Versus Active-duty Military. Education Journal, 10(6), 204-217. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11
ACS Style
David Anthony Weisenhorn; Jason David Hans. Subculture Differences in Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: College Students Versus Active-duty Military. Educ. J. 2021, 10(6), 204-217. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11
AMA Style
David Anthony Weisenhorn, Jason David Hans. Subculture Differences in Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: College Students Versus Active-duty Military. Educ J. 2021;10(6):204-217. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11
@article{10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11, author = {David Anthony Weisenhorn and Jason David Hans}, title = {Subculture Differences in Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: College Students Versus Active-duty Military}, journal = {Education Journal}, volume = {10}, number = {6}, pages = {204-217}, doi = {10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11}, url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11}, eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.edu.20211006.11}, abstract = {With growing evidence of both short- and long-term detrimental effects of corporal punishment on children, efforts to end corporal punishment are working. However, evidence also suggests that the ongoing incidence of corporal punishment varies across intersectional strata. To more fully understand the variation in attitudes toward corporal punishment across subcultures, a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 factorial vignette design was used to examine (a) whether active duty military personnel, the general population, and college students differ in their attitudes about the acceptability of corporal punishment; (b) variations in attitudes according to ethnic differences after naturally controlling for socioeconomic disparity in the all-volunteer active duty military sample; and (c) whether respondent age, sex, parental status, or education predict varying attitudes toward the use of corporal punishment. Substantially more military respondents (73.6%) than the general population (42.8%) and college student (40.1%) respondents indicated the use of corporal punishment was appropriate in the vignette scenario. Similarly, if faced with the same set of circumstances, 52.4% of military respondents indicated they would spank their own child, compared to 28.7% among the general population, and 34.2% among college students. Respondents’ rationales for their responses, implications of these findings, and future directions are discussed.}, year = {2021} }
TY - JOUR T1 - Subculture Differences in Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: College Students Versus Active-duty Military AU - David Anthony Weisenhorn AU - Jason David Hans Y1 - 2021/11/19 PY - 2021 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11 DO - 10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11 T2 - Education Journal JF - Education Journal JO - Education Journal SP - 204 EP - 217 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2327-2619 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11 AB - With growing evidence of both short- and long-term detrimental effects of corporal punishment on children, efforts to end corporal punishment are working. However, evidence also suggests that the ongoing incidence of corporal punishment varies across intersectional strata. To more fully understand the variation in attitudes toward corporal punishment across subcultures, a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 factorial vignette design was used to examine (a) whether active duty military personnel, the general population, and college students differ in their attitudes about the acceptability of corporal punishment; (b) variations in attitudes according to ethnic differences after naturally controlling for socioeconomic disparity in the all-volunteer active duty military sample; and (c) whether respondent age, sex, parental status, or education predict varying attitudes toward the use of corporal punishment. Substantially more military respondents (73.6%) than the general population (42.8%) and college student (40.1%) respondents indicated the use of corporal punishment was appropriate in the vignette scenario. Similarly, if faced with the same set of circumstances, 52.4% of military respondents indicated they would spank their own child, compared to 28.7% among the general population, and 34.2% among college students. Respondents’ rationales for their responses, implications of these findings, and future directions are discussed. VL - 10 IS - 6 ER -