Commonalities and Differences in Social Norms Related to Corporal Punishment Among Black, Latino and White Parents
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Commonalities and Differences in Social Norms Related to Corporal Punishment Among Black, Latino and White Parents Joanne Klevens1 · Laura Mercer Kollar1 · Genevieve Rizzo2 · Gerad O’Shea3 · Jessica Nguyen3 · Sarah Roby1 Published online: 2 January 2019 © This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply 2018
Abstract To establish commonalities and differences in social norms related to corporal punishment among Black, Latino, and White parents, we first examine survey data from a random sample of a nationally representative opt-in internet panel (n = 2500) to establish the frequency of corporal punishment among parents of children under five (n = 540) and their perceptions of the frequency of use of corporal punishment in their community and whether they ought to use corporal punishment. We disaggregate by race/ethnicity and education to identify higher risk groups. To better understand the beliefs underlying these perceptions among the higher risk group (i.e., less educated), we used a grounded theory approach to analyze data from 13 focus groups (n = 75) segmented by race/ethnicity (i.e., Black, Latino, or White), gender (i.e., mothers or fathers), and population density (i.e., rural or urban). Survey findings revealed that 63% of parents spanked, albeit the majority seldom or sometimes. Spanking was most frequent among Latinos (73%) and lowest among White parents (59%). While all participants across racial/ethnic groups believed the majority of parents spanked, even more than the proportion that actually do, about half believed they ought to spank. Perceptions of the frequency and acceptability of corporal punishment were associated with use of corporal punishment. The qualitative findings highlight more similarities than differences across Black, Latino, and White communities. The findings suggest social norms change efforts might focus on parents with less education and influencing perceptions around whether they ought to spank. Keywords Social norms · Corporal punishment · Children Although social norms shape parenting behaviors, few studies have explored the social norms surrounding corporal punishment of children, especially among a racially and ethnically diverse sample of participants. Corporal punishment (e.g., spanking, slapping, swatting, “whupping”, and other forms of hitting a child) is harmful for children. A rigorous meta-analysis of 75 studies including almost 161,000 Disclaimer The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. * Joanne Klevens [email protected] 1
Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, NE, Mailstop F63, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
2
Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
3
Applied Curiosity Research, Long Island City, NY, USA
children found a consistent association between corporal punishment
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