Although the merits of parents using corporal punishment to discipline children have been argued for decades, a thorough understanding of whether and how corporal punishment affects children has not been reached. Toward this end, the author first presents the results of meta-analyses of the association between parental corporal punishment and 11 child behaviors and experiences. Parental corporal punishment was associated with all child constructs, including higher levels of immediate compliance and aggression and lower levels of moral internalization and mental health. The author then presents a process– context model to explain how parental corporal punishment might cause particular child outcomes and considers alternative explanations. The article concludes by identifying 7 major remaining issues for future

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Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviors and experiences: A meta-analytic and theoretical review.

Researchers have suggested the presence of a self-serving attributional bias, with people making more internal, stable, and global attributions for positive events than for negative events. This study examined the magnitude, ubiquity, and adaptiveness of this bias. The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 266 studies, yielding 503 independent effect sizes. The average d was 0.96, indicating a large bias. The bias was present in nearly all samples. There were significant age differences, with children and older adults displaying the largest biases. Asian samples displayed significantly smaller biases (d = 0.30) than U.S. (d = 1.05) or Western (d = 0.70) samples. Psychopathology was associated with a significantly attenuated bias (d = 0.48) compared with samples without psychopathology (d = 1.28) and community samples (d = 1.08). The bias was smallest for samples with depression (0.21), anxiety (0.46), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (0.55). Findings confirm that the self-serving attributional bias is pervasive in the general population but demonstrates significant variability across age, culture, and psychopathology.

Is There a Universal Positivity Bias in Attributions? A Meta-Analytic Review of Individual, Developmental, and Cultural Differences in the Self-Serving Attributional Bias.

Individual differences in parenting stress, experienced by most parents as those aversive feelings that are associated with the demands of the parenting role, have been shown to be an important aspect of parent, child, and family functioning. A definition of parenting stress is provided, along with its application to more general stress models. Three implicit hypotheses in much of the past research on parenting stress and behavior are evaluated: (a) parenting stress is causally related to poor parenting, (b) poor parenting is causally related to problems in child adjustment, and (c) parenting behavior mediates the associations between parenting stress and child adjustment. In addition, three questions for future research regarding within-family and within-Individual variation in parenting stress are raised: (a) Is parenting stress genetically influenced? (b) Do mothers and fathers show similar or different levels of parenting stress? (c) Is parenting stress “child specific” within families?

Parenting Stress and Child Adjustment: Some Old Hypotheses and New Questions

Stress and parenting during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications

Parenting stress and anger expression as predictors of child abuse potential

The present investigation predicted that greater use of corporal punishment as well as physical maltreatment would be associated with child abuse potential and selected parenting styles. Three independent studies were examined, two with community samples and a third with a clinical at-risk sample of parents. Parents across all studies anonymously completed the Child Abuse Potential Inventory, the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale to assess physical discipline and maltreatment, as well as the Parenting Scale to measure dysfunctional parenting styles. Findings support that overall parent-child aggression, as well as physical maltreatment behaviors specifically, were associated with child abuse potential. Parent-child aggression was also related to dysfunctional parenting styles, particularly an overreactive, authoritarian parenting style. Permissive parenting was also identified as potentially associated with physical maltreatment, although the findings regarding such lax parenting styles are less clear. Intriguing findings emerged regarding the connection of psychological aggression to both child abuse potential and dysfunctional parenting style. Child abuse potential was also associated with dysfunctional parenting style, particularly harsh, overreactive approaches. Recommendations for future study with at-risk samples and additional research on permissive parenting and psychological aggression are discussed.

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Parent-child aggression: association with child abuse potential and parenting styles

Progress in the child maltreatment field depends on refinements in leading models. This study examines aspects of social information processing theory (Milner, 2000) in predicting physical maltreatment risk in a community sample. Consistent with this theory, selected preexisting schema (external locus-of-control orientation, inappropriate developmental expectations, low empathic perspective-taking ability, and low perceived attachment relationship to child) were expected to predict child abuse risk beyond contextual factors (parenting stress and anger expression). Based on 115 parents' self-report, results from this study support cognitive factors that predict abuse risk (with locus of control, perceived attachment, or empathy predicting different abuse risk measures, but not developmental expectations), although the broad contextual factors involving negative affectivity and stress were consistent predictors across abuse risk markers. Findings are discussed with regard to implications for future model evaluations, with indications the model may apply to other forms of maltreatment, such as psychological maltreatment or neglect.

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Stress and anger as contextual factors and preexisting cognitive schemas: predicting parental child maltreatment risk.

Although considerable research has investigated parenting stress and children’s externalizing behavior problems, comparatively less has considered parenting stress in relation to children’s internalizing difficulties. Even less research on parenting stress has incorporated children’s report of their internalizing symptoms or the potential mediating role of children’s attributional style. The current study hypothesized that children’s independent reports of internalizing symptoms would be associated with mothers’ reports of parenting stress through children’s attributional style. A community sample of 92 mother–child dyads participated. Results suggest maternal parenting stress from both child and parent sources were significantly associated with children’s anxious and depressive symptoms. Parenting stress was associated with children’s internalizing symptoms partially mediated by children’s maladaptive attributional style, primarily negative attributions for positive outcomes. Findings are discussed in terms of future directions to tease apart specific areas of parenting stress that may be most pertinent as well as to explore other cognitive mechanisms in children that may relate to parenting stress and children’s adjustment.

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Association between Independent Reports of Maternal Parenting Stress and Children’s Internalizing Symptomatology.

This study examined statistically the differential relationships among child domain and parent domain scores of the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) and child disruptive behaviors as measured by the problem and intensity scales of the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI). As were 165 children ages 2-10 referred for psychological evaluation. The PSI child domain and parent domain scores were significantly correlated with the ECBI intensity and problem scores and, as hypothesized, child domain scores were significantly more highly correlated with ECBI scores than were parent domain scores. Correlations of the ECBI problem and intensity scores with the PSI were not significantly different. In contrast to a previous study, no differences were found between single- and two-parent families in the number of disruptive child behaviors reported as problems. Analyses of sample differences suggested that, as the frequency of children's disruptive behaviors increases, spouse support may be less effective in buffering maternal parenting stress.

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Christina M. Rodriguez

Papers

Parenting stress and anger expression as predictors of child abuse potential

Parent-child aggression: association with child abuse potential and parenting styles

Stress and anger as contextual factors and preexisting cognitive schemas: predicting parental child maltreatment risk.

Association between Independent Reports of Maternal Parenting Stress and Children’s Internalizing Symptomatology.

Relationships between maternal parenting stress and child disruptive behavior.