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Emotionally disturbed children's beliefs about punishment
ChildAhuse& Neglect,Vol. 15, pp. 19-28, 1991 Printed in lhe U.S.A.All rightsreserved.
0145-2134/91 $3.00+ .00 Copyright© 1991PergamonPressplc
E M O T I O N A L L Y D I S T U R B E D CHILDREN'S BELIEFS ABOUT PUNISHMENT BONNIE E. CARLSON School of Social Welfare, The University at Albany, State University of New York
Abstract--Beliefs about discipline were examined in 58 emotionally disturbed, residentially placed children. Sixtyone percent had been physically or sexually abused prior to placement. Subjects were presented with vignettes depicting child misbehaviors and interpersonal problem situations. Very few children recommended physical punishment, including those from abusive families. However, emotionally disturbed children were somewhat more likely to endorse physical punishment than previously studied children from a normal sample. Neither gender nor ethnic differences were found. Children who endorsed physical punishment were also more likely to recommend aggressive problem solutions. Key Words--Punishment, Discipline, Child abuse, Misbehavior, Emotionally disturbed.
INTRODUCTION PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT and its effects on children have been studied rather extensively by social scientists. However, the findings from that research are neither consistent nor conclusive in regard to the nature of the relationship between parental use of physical punishment and one possible outcome of its use, aggression during childhood or later in adulthood. On one side are those who maintain that parental use of physical discipline in childhood, especially extreme physical discipline, is associated with both childhood and adult aggression (e.g., Huesmann, Eron, Lefkowitz, & Walder, 1984; Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980). On the other side are those who challenge the assertion that parental disciplinary practices are associated with aggression in childhood or adulthood (Jayaratne, 1977; Pagelow, 1984; Ringwalt, Browne, Rosenbloom, & Evans, 1987). In the field of family violence it has been widely assumed that physical punishment by parents constitutes one form of violence (cf., Straus, et al., 1980), a very important one insofar as spanking and other "socially acceptable" forms of physical punishment are so nearly universal. It has long been asserted by family violence experts that "violence begets violence" (Straus, et al., 1980), and that individuals learn to become violent in one of two ways: by experiencing such behavior directly or by observing it during childhood. This has been referred to as the "intergenerational transmission theory" (Herrenkohl, Herrenkhol, & Toedter, 1983). The assertion that people are violent as adults primarily because of exposure to violence in childhood has been dit~cult to prove empirically, however. In this context it has been observed that violence is learned behavior that need not be directly and positively reinforced in order to be acquired as a response pattern (Bandura, Received for publication November 27, 1989; final revision received February 2 I, 1990; accepted February 28, 1990. Reprint requests may be addressed to Bonnie E. Carlson, Ph.D., School of Social Welfare, 135 Western Avenue, The University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222. 19
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Bonnie E. Carlson
Ross, & Ross, 1963). It has been further observed that most people have their first experience with violence in their families of origin in the form of socially sanctioned physical discipline, usually before their first birthday (Wauchope & Straus, 1987). Physical punishment is said to implicitly establish the legitimacy of using physical force to make family members comply and begins to establish a connection between love and violence. Despite an extensive research tradition and much theorizing about the association between physical punishment and aggression, seldom have children themselves been queried about their views on discipline. What are children's perceptions about punishment? Are their views at all related to the discipline they have experienced? If violence is learned by at least some people via physical punishment, at what point does such learning begin to manifest itself?.Are children who endorse physical methods of punishment more likely to also use aggressive strategies to resolve problems as some have suggested? Children's beliefs and ideas about discipline, while not always predictive of actual behavior, are nonetheless valid subjects for inquiry insofar as such cognitions mediate the commission of aggressive acts. The research described here is a modified replication of an earlier study exploring normal children's beliefs about discipline, physical punishment in particular (Carlson, 1986). In the earlier study surprisingly few recommendations of physical types of punishment were found (only 6.4% of the total 804 responses of two hundred 9- to 12-year-old children), even in response to behaviors children perceived to be very bad. Overwhelmingly, even when behavior was judged very bad, participants recommended that parents talk to misbehaving children about what they did wrong as the most effective form of discipline, so that children could understand what they did wrong and not do it again. Virtually all of the corporal punishment recommended consisted of spanking, rather than hitting with a belt. No participant suggested that a child be disciplined physically for a nonaggressive act. That is, the only misbehaviors that elicited physical punishment responses were those that actually consisted of aggressive misbehavior (hitting a sib or fighting with a peer). Children were twice as likely to recommend physical punishment in response to familial aggression (hitting a sib) compared to aggression against a peer, even though peer aggression was evaluated as more serious on average. These findings suggest a possible association between aggression, especially familial aggression, and physical punishment among normal children. Since we could not inquire about the actual discipline children received at home, it was impossible to establish whether a relationship existed between their own discipline experiences and the kinds of punishment they endorsed. The replication had two goals. First, we wanted to learn more about how the views of a clinical sample were similar to and different from those of a sample of well-functioning children. There are at least two reasons to suspect that emotionally disturbed children might be more willing to use aggression than normal children, with exposure to severe discipline hypothesized to be the mediating variable. First, many emotionally disturbed children have been the victims of child abuse, and their problematic behaviors are the result of such victimization (Shirk, 1987). As a consequence of their victimization they have also been exposed to aggressive role models. In addition, even nonabused, emotionally disturbed children are likely to engage in difficult behavior that might tend to elicit more extreme disciplinary responses from parents, including severe physical discipline, due to the frustration of coping with an emotionally disturbed child. The second goal was to see if there was a relationship between children's inclination to use physical punishment in response to misbehavior and their willingness to resort to physical aggression to resolve interpersonal disagreements. Two formal hypotheses were explored. First, abused children were hypothesized to be more likely to endorse physical punishment than nonabused children within this clinical sample. Second, we hypothesized that abused children would be more likely to choose aggressive problem solutions than nonabused children. In addition, children from the clinical sample
Children's beliefsabout punishment
21
would be compared with children from the normal population studied previously in terms of their willingness to endorse physical punishment. We also had an interest in further exploring gender differences, which were notably absent in the original study despite predictions based on child development literature (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974). Ethnic differences were also of interest, insofar as black children have been said to experience more violence in their homes than white children (Hampton, 1987), as were social class differences.
METHOD
The Sample These issues were investigated in a study of 58 emotionally disturbed children ages 7 to 12 (X = 10.27) from two residential treatment settings in suburban Boston. Many of these children were suspected of having been physically or sexually abused by a parent prior to placement. Unfortunately, it was impossible to obtain highly accurate information about abuse status, and we were forced to rely on the clinical impressions of relevant professional staff for this determination. The limitations of these judgments are acknowledged, and related findings should be regarded as tentative. Most of the sample came from lower- or working-class families in New England; only 10% of the subjects were from middle- or upper middle-class families. In this sample 78% of the children were white, 17% were black, and 5% were Puerto Rican. Based on the age and social class backgrounds of the sample, recent data from a large, nationally representative sample of parents suggest that most of the respondents were likely to have been subjected to at least minor violence in the form of socially approved physical discipline prior to placement (Wauchope & Straus, 1987). Extrapolating from those data, approximately 12% of this sample was likely to have experienced severe violence, such as being kicked, punched, burned, or threatened with a weapon. Unfortunately, only 17% of the sample (n -- 10) were girls. For the most part this unbalanced sex distribution reflects the gender composition of residentially placed, latency-aged children, where boys predominate. An examination of gender differences was undertaken; however the results can only be seen as suggestive due to the small number of responses from girls. Each participant was asked to respond to a brief questionnaire administered by a trained graduate student in social work. In Part I, subjects were presented with four vignettes depicting different types of child misbehavior. Sex of target child in the stories was matched with sex of participant to promote identification by the subject with the target child. Two child misbehaviors were nonaggressive (lost a pen, took money from a parent's wallet), and two were aggressive (hit younger sibling, hit a peer). After hearing each story the child was asked to put him/herself in the role of parent and determine first how "bad" the misbehavior was ("hardly at all," "kind of bad" or "very bad"). Next, the subject was asked what would be the "best thing to do" if he/she were the parent of the misbehaving child, choosing from a list of six predetermined choices: nothing; talk to the child about what he/she did wrong; don't let the child play with his/her friends; take away TV or allowance; spank the child with your hand; or hit the child with a belt. Then the subject was asked why that would be the best thing to do. Finally, the subject was asked which of the options would be the worst thing to do if he/she were the parent, and why. In Part II participants heard two vignettes depicting problem situations likely to be encountered by a child: one with a sibling and one with a peer. In the peer problem a child's school-
Bonnie E. Carlson
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Table 1. Recommended Discipline By Vignette Response
Lost Pen
Took Money
Hit Sibling
Peer Fight
Totals
Nothing Talk to the child No playing with friends No TV, allowance Spank Hit w i t h a b e l t
3 (5.2)* 41 (70.7) 4 (6.9) 10 (17.2) ---
I (1.7) 26 (44.8) 2 (3.4) 25 (43.1) 2 (3.4) 2 (3.4)
2 (3.4) 25 (43.1) 6 (10.3) 11 (19.0) I1 (19.0) 3 (5.2)
4 (6.9) 19 (32.8) 15 (25.9) 7 (17.2) 7(12.1) 3 (5.2)
10 (4.4) 11 I (48.5) 27 ( I 1.8) 53 (23.1) 20 (8.8) 8 (3.5) 229
* Column percentages are in parentheses
book and homework were taken by another child who threatened to destroy them. In the sibling problem a disagreement arose over which television program to watch. Subjects were asked to choose a solution from a list of five options, one of which was aggressive (hit the child). In each case the subjects were asked why they made that choice; and if they did not opt to hit the other child, why they chose not to hit. Only 43 children completed this part of the study due to an administrative error. Responses on Part I were compared with those on Part II to explore whether there was any association between endorsement of physical punishment for discipline and selection of aggressive solutions in the problem situation.
RESULTS
Punishment Vignettes Table 1 depicts the distribution of responses across the four vignettes in terms of the best thing to do if the subject were the parent of the misbehaving child. It can be seen that on the first vignette (Lost Pen) no one recommended either form of physical punishment, the modal response being talk to the child. On the Took Money vignette, four subjects endorsed physical punishment (two each for spanking and hitting with a belt), with most of the remainder of the sample split between talking to the child and taking away TV or allowance. However, on the Hit Sibling vignette, almost one-fourth of the sample recommended spanking (n = 11) or hitting with a belt (n = 3), although the modal response here too was to talk to the child. Finally on the Peer Fight vignette, 17% of the sample r e c o m m e n d e d spanking or hitting with a belt. The modal response was to not allow the child to play with friends, followed by talking to the child. Across all four vignettes the modal response was talk to the child, accounting for just under half(48.5%) of the responses, as can be seen in Table 1, Physical punishment (spanking, 8.8% and hitting with a belt, 3.5%) constituted 12.3% of the total responses. Thus, children from the clinical sample were almost twice as likely as the 6.4% from the original nonclinical sample to endorse physical punishment for the same four misbehaviors (Carlson, 1986), in support of the second hypothesis. There was little variation in the degree of seriousness of the four misbehaviors as perceived by the sample. Between 62% and 76% of the sample saw each of the four misbehaviors as very bad, with 5-10% perceiving the depicted misbehaviors as not at all bad. Cross-tabulations were performed on recommended outcomes by perceived seriousness for all four vignettes. The modal response at all three levels of seriousness for all but one vignette was to talk to the child about what he/she did wrong. The exception was the vignette where the child got into a fight with a peer and broke his/her glasses. In this case the modal response (n = 11) for the 39
Children's beliefs about punishment
23
Table 2. Type of Discipline Recommended, by Child Abuse History Type of Discipline Vignette Took money Abused Nonabused Hit sibling Abused Nonabused Peer fight Abused Nonabused
Physical
Nonphysical
4 0
32 22
8 16
28 6
9 I
23 21"
*X 2(1.= 58)=4.00, p < . 0 5 .
children who rated this as very bad was don't let him/her play with his/her friends, followed by talk to the child (n = 10). Thus, it can be concluded that for the most part, irrespective of perceived seriousness, these children recommended talking to the child as the best thing for parents to do in response to misbehavior. Furthermore, in the exception, the discipline recommended was clearly related directly to the misbehavior. Children's perceptions of seriousness were also examined in relation to selections of physical versus nonphysical punishment. On the three vignettes where physical punishment was recommended, the overwhelming majority of those recommending it perceived the misbehavior as very bad versus kind of bad; no child choosing physical punishment perceived the misbehavior as not at all bad. Thus, on Took Money, 3 out of the 4 children recommending physical punishment perceived behavior as very bad, as did 10 out of the 14 who chose physical punishment on Hit Sibling, and 9 out of the 10 selecting physical punishment on Peer Fight. This would suggest that perceiving a misbehavior as very bad is a virtual prerequisite to recommending physical discipline. Recommended discipline was then explored according to child abuse history, collapsing discipline responses into two categories, nonphysical and physical. The first vignette (Lost Pen) was not considered since no one endorsed physical discipline. On the Took Money vignette, the chi-square analysis approached significance, x 2 (1, N = 58) = 2.63, p < . 10. As can be seen in Table 2, all four subjects endorsing physical punishment came from the abused group. On the Hit Sibling vignette, abused children were slightly, but not significantly, less likely to recommend physical punishment than nonabused subjects (22% versus 27%). The reverse pattern was observed on the Peer Fight vignette where abused children were significantly more likely to recommend spanking or hitting with a belt than the nonabused children, x 2 (1, N = 58) = 4.00, p < .05. Thus, there are some indications of an association between being abused and willingness to use physical punishment, although the relationship is not consistent, providing only partial support for the first hypothesis. To reduce the data and obtain an overview across all four misbehaviors, it was decided to aggregate the responses across all four vignettes, differentially weighting responses consisting of nonphysical punishment, socially acceptable violence (spanking), and abusive violence (hitting with a belt). Accordingly, nonphysical punishment was recoded as 0, spanking as 1, and hitting with a belt as 2. Best-thing-to-do scores were then summed across the four vignettes. Total scores could vary between 0 and 8, with higher scores indicating greater endorsement of physical punishment. The distribution of this new variable, Punish, was then examined. Punish scores ranged from 0 to 3. Over half of the sample (57%) achieved a score of 0 on this
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Bonnie E. Carlson
variable, indicating they did not endorse physical punishment on any of the vignettes. Thus, physical punishment was recommended at least once by 43% of the sample. Since no one scored higher than 3 (and only one subject scored 3), no individual subject either endorsed spanking more than three times or hitting with a belt and spanking more than once. This new variable was then examined in relation to abuse history using a t test, but no significant group differences based on abuse history emerged. Thus, being abused was unrelated to propensity to r e c o m m e n d physical punishment across the four vignettes.
Gender differences. R e c o m m e n d e d punishments were then examined by sex using chi-square analysis and t tests. On the Took Money vignette, all four respondents endorsing physical punishment were boys, representing 8% of the male sample. On Hit Sibling, 27% of the boys suggested physical punishment, as did 10% of the girls. A similar pattern was observed on the Peer Fight vignette where 10% of the girls r e c o m m e n d e d physical punishment in contrast to 19% of the boys. However, even though boys were almost two to three times as likely to r e c o m m e n d physical punishment, neither difference was statistically significant. A similar pattern was found when the scaled variable, Punish, was examined in relation to gender. Boys scored higher (M = .69) than girls (-M = .30), but not significantly based on a t test. Demographic variables. For exploratory purposes responses were also examined in relation to ethnicity and chronological age. No group differences as a function of ethnicity were found on the basis of the aggregated Punish scores. Age and Punish scores were also unrelated (r = - .09). Problem-Solving Vignettes On the two problem-solving questions, subjects were asked whether they would hit another child with whom they were having the disagreement. Initially, 12% said they would hit the other child on the Takes H o m e w o r k problem, and 5% on the TV Conflict. However, when subjects were questioned further about why they would not hit, several more children indicated that they would in fact use physical aggression in that situation, a total of 33% in the Takes H o m e w o r k problem and 21% in the TV Conflict problem. Problem solutions from Part II of the instrument were also examined in relation to child abuse history. In Takes Homework, the abused subjects were almost twice as likely to say they would hit in contrast to nonabused subjects (40% versus 22%). In the TV Disagreement problem, 28% of the abused children reported that they would hit a sibling versus 11% of the nonabused children. In both cases abused children were more likely to say they would hit than nonabused, although not significantly, based on chi-square tests. Thus, the second hypothesis was not supported.
Gender differences. On the Takes H o m e w o r k problem, boys were about half as likely to say they would hit as girls, 27% contrasted with 50%. The reverse pattern was found for the TV Disagreement problem: Boys were more than twice as likely as girls to report that they would hit as compared to girls (24% versus 10%). Again, neither difference was statistically significant and no gender-related pattern in problem solutions was identified. Punishment and problem solving. Finally, willingness to use aggression as a problem solution was examined in relation to scores on the aggregate punishment variable from Part I (Punish). The findings are shown in Table 3. The distribution of Takes H o m e w o r k scores was unrelated to propensity to r e c o m m e n d physical punishment in Part I. However, a significant relationship was found between severity of discipline r e c o m m e n d e d and willingness to resort to
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Children's beliefsabout punishment Table
3. Problem Solving Scores by Willingness to Use Physical Punishment TV Fight** Takes Homework
PUNISH Scores
No
Yes
No
Yes
0
22 (88)*
3 (12)
15 (60)
10 (40)
1
9
1
9
1
2
(90) 3 (37)
(1o) 5 (62)
(90) 5 (63)
(1o) 3 (37)
* Row percentagesare in parentheses. ** X2 (2, N = 43) = 10.28,p < .006.
aggression on the T V fight question, x 2 (2, n --- 43) -- 10.28, p < .01. A majority o f the children who had r e c o m m e n d e d spanking twice a n d / o r hitting with a belt once in Part I said they would use aggression to resolve the sibling disagreement in Part II (62%), compared to only 12% or fewer of those who recommended spanking once or not at all in Part I.
DISCUSSION The generalizability o f the study's findings is limited by the small, nonrepresentative sample on which they are based. Another limitation is the fact that the respondents could not be asked how they were actually punished in their homes, but only how they would r e c o m m e n d punishing children for four, specific types o f misbehavior. Although it is reasonable to assume that children's recommendations were closely related to their own experiences with discipline, future research needs to address the actual discipline experiences o f children as reported by the children themselves a n d / o r their parents. Overall, the responses of this clinical sample, over half o f whom came from families where they were either physically or sexually abused, are remarkably similar to responses of wellfunctioning children not in residential care. Although the misbehaviors depicted were seen as quite serious in both samples, relatively few children endorsed physical punishment when asked how they would respond as a parent. O f the total responses across the four vignettes in Part I, 12% consisted of recommendations for physical forms o f punishment, in contrast to 6% in the original study, with 43% o f this sample endorsing physical punishment. Although children from the clinical sample were somewhat more likely to suggest physical punishment, including severe physical punishment, compared to the nonclinical sample, those recommending physical discipline still constituted a relatively small minority overall. Thus, the discipline recommended by most of this clinical sample, like the normal sample studied earlier, consisted o f talking to the child about what they did wrong so that he/she could avoid doing it in the future. Also similar is the fact that most endorsements o f physical punishment (86%) were limited to the two vignettes that depicted aggressive misbehavior, in particular the one occurring in the context of the family. These findings are consistent with research on family violence showing that sibling aggression is the most frequently occurring type o f family violence (Straus et al., 1980). The findings are also congruent with the work or Felson and Russo (1988) showing that parents are more likely to punish older siblings than younger ones for fighting, especially when the older sib is male, as most o f these subjects were. There were selective indications o f a relationship between exposure to child abuse and willingness to use physical punishment in two o f the three vignettes where physical punish-
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Bonnie E. Carlson
ment was recommended. Although there was no association between abuse history and type of punishment recommended on Hit Sibling, on both Took Money and Peer Fight abused subjects were more likely to endorse physical discipline as the best thing for the parent to do. The absence of consistent differences in willingness to use physical discipline as a function of abuse history is congruent with the work of an increasing number of scholars who are questioning the presumed intergenerational transmission of abuse (Herzberger, 1983; Kaufman & Zigler, 1987; Ringwalt et al., 1987). Even where abuse history was associated with an increased tendency to endorse physical punishment, the magnitude of the relationship was modest, and it is clear that other factors influence a child's willingness to use aggression interpersonally. One factor that could be masking a relationship between child abuse and propensity to use aggression interpersonally is the weak measure of child abuse employed. Since abuse history was not systematically explored for all cases, the measure employed was based on clinical impressions and aggregated physical and sexual abuse together. It is possible that the abused group included some children who were not actually abused, or that some of the children presumed not to be abused had actually experienced physical or sexual abuse. In addition, the measure did not take into account the severity of the abuse, or its chronicity, both of which might affect the likelihood of a child becoming violent. It is also possible that in actual practice abused children will engage in more aggressive discipline as parents than they are currently reporting they will, naively thinking that they will treat their own children better than their parents threated them. Additionally, since the orientation of residential settings toward interpersonal violence is likely to discourage aggressive behavior, there may be powerful social desirability pressures influencing their responses. It is possible that the tendency to endorse physical punishment had been suppressed in children who had been in treatment for a longer period of time, for example. Parental discipline practices may also have been a subject of therapeutic work with some of the children. Limited support was obtained for the existence of a relationship between endorsement of physical punishment (and presumably being a recipient of it) and willingness to use aggression to resolve an interpersonal conflict--but only in the case of the sibling disagreement, an argument over which television program to watch. It is reasonable to assume that children's approaches to interpersonal problem solving will be influenced by their experiences with discipline as well as the communications from parents accompanying these encounters. This is a topic that should be investigated further as there appears to be no research examining type of discipline in relation to interpersonal problem solving. The relative absence of significant sex differences was also somewhat unexpected, although consistent with the previous study (Carlson, 1986). We expected to find that boys would be more likely to be willing to use and endorse physical methods of discipline based on data showing boys to be the more aggressive sex and the recipients of more physical punishment (Straus et al., 1980; Wauchope & Straus, 1987). Small differences were found in how boys and girls responded, although they were not always in the expected direction and were not statistically significant. That girls sometimes appeared more likely to endorse aggressive behavior may be an artifact of the clinical nature of this sample, where girls' aggressive behavior may have contributed to their placement. A larger sample size with a more equal distribution of boys and girls would be necessary to confirm the pattern of findings obtained here. Felson and Russo (1988) also found that girls were "just as likely to be involved in aggressive interactions" as boys in their study of childhood sibling aggression (p. 17). Consistent with these studies, Hyde (1985) concluded, on the basis of her meta-analysis on gender differences in children's aggression, that the magnitude of such differences tends to be quite small (account-
Children's beliefs about punishment
27
ing for approximately 7% of the variance in studies of children in this age group), especially in studies such as these based on self-reports. The most reasonable conclusion on the basis of these data is that male and female beliefs about family-based aggression are more similar than different. More research is needed that follows child abuse victims over time and tracks their cognitions about aggression and abuse as well as their future experiences as possible victims or perpetrators of aggressive acts. A better understanding of children's beliefs about violence and abuse should assist us in devising more effective remediation programs. Residential placement is an example of one type of program that may change children's experiences with violence by encouraging them to reflect on and modify their own behavior toward others. Acknowledgement--Special thanks to Richard Small, Executive Director, and the staffs of the Walker School, Jamaica Plain, MA, and the Italian Home for Children, Boston, MA, for their assistance with recruitment of the sample for this study.
REFERENCES Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1963). Vicarious reinforcement and imitative learning. Journal ~?[Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 601-607. Carlson. B. E. (1986). Children's beliefs about punishment. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 56, 308-312. Felson, R. B., & Russo, N. (1988). Parental punishment and sibling aggression. Social Psychology Quarterh' 5, 11-18. Hampton, R. L. (1987). Violence against black children: Current knowledge and future research needs. In R. L. Hampton (Ed.), Violence in the black family (pp. 3-20). Lexington, MA: D. C. Health. Herrenkohl, E. C., Herrenkohl, R. C., & Toedter, L. J. (1983). Perspectives on the intergenerational transmission of abuse. In D. Finkelhor, R. J. Gelles, G. T. Hotaling, & M. A. Straus (Eds.), The dark side o/families (pp. 305-316). Beverly Hills: Sage. Herzberger, S. D. (1983). Social cognition and the transmission of abuse. In D. Finkelhor, R. J. Gelles, G. T. Hotaling, & M. A. Straus (Eds.), The dark side ~?l~families(pp. 317-329). Beverly Hills: Sage. Huesmann, L. R., Eron, L. D., Lefkowitz, M. M., & Walder, L. O. (1984). Stability of aggression over time and generations. Developmental Psychology, 20, 1120- I 134. Hyde J. S. (1985). How large are gender differences in aggression? A developmental meta-analysis. Developmental Psychology, 21,722-735. Jayaratne, S. (1977). Child abusers as parents and children. Social Work, 22, 5-9. Kaufman, J., & Zigler, E. (1987). Do abused children become abused parents? American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 186-190. Maccoby, E. E., & Jacklin, C. N. (1974). The psychology afsex differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Pagelow, M. D. (1984). Family violence. New York: Praeger. Ringwalt, C., Browne, D., Rosenbloom, L., & Evans, G. A. (1987). Predicting adult approval ~?[physicaldiscipline experiences ~?['violenceand punishment. Paper presented at the Third Annual Conference for Family Violence Researchers, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, July 6-9. Shirk, S. R. (1987). The interpersonal legacy of physical abuse of children. In M. B. Straus (Ed.), Abuse and victimization across the life span (pp. 59-81). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Straus, M. A., Gelles, R. J., & Steinmetz (1980). Behind closed doors. Violence in the AmericanJiTmily. New York: Doubleday. Wauchope, B. A., & Straus, M. A. (1987). Age. class, and gender differences in physical punishment and physical abuse of American children. Paper presented at the Third Annual Conference for Family Violence Researchers, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, July 6-9, 1987.
Rrsumr--Les principes de discipline ont 6t6 6tudirs chez 58 enfants perturbrs au plan 6motionnel et placrs en institution. Soixante et un pour cent avait 6t6 physiquement ou sexuellement abusrs avant le placement. Des
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Bonnie E. Carlson
sc~nettes d6crivant des enfants qui se m6conduisent et des situations de conflits interpersonnels leur ont 6t6 pr6sent6es. Tr~s peu d'enfants recommandent des punitions physiques, y compris ceux issus de families abusives. Cependant les enfants pertub6s 6motionellement approuvent plus fr6quemment les punitions physiques qu'un groupe d'enfant normaux pr6c6demment analys6. Aucune diff6rence n'a 6t6 relev6e en fonction du sexe ou de l'origine ethnique des enfants. Les enfants approuvant les punitions physiques recommandaient aussi plus fr6quemment des solutions aggressives aux situations de conflit. Resumen--Se examinaron las creencias acerca de la disciplina de 58 menores emocionalmente perturbados en una instituci6n residencial. Sesenta y uno por ciento habian sido fisica o sexualmente abusados previo a su admisi6n. Los sujetos fueron presentados con historiales clinicos que describian malos comportamientos infantiles y situaciones interpersonales problem~iticas. Muy pocos niftos recomendaron el castigo corporal, incluyendo aquellos de familias abusivas. Pero los nifios emocionalmente perturbados estaban algo m~s inclinados a recomendar el castigo corporal que los nii~os de una muestra normal previamente estudiados. No se encontraron diferencias 6tnicas ni en cuanto a sexo. Los menores a favor del castigo corporal tambi6n estaban re;is inclinados a recomendar soluciones agresivas a los problemas.
0145-2134/91 $3.00+ .00 Copyright© 1991PergamonPressplc
E M O T I O N A L L Y D I S T U R B E D CHILDREN'S BELIEFS ABOUT PUNISHMENT BONNIE E. CARLSON School of Social Welfare, The University at Albany, State University of New York
Abstract--Beliefs about discipline were examined in 58 emotionally disturbed, residentially placed children. Sixtyone percent had been physically or sexually abused prior to placement. Subjects were presented with vignettes depicting child misbehaviors and interpersonal problem situations. Very few children recommended physical punishment, including those from abusive families. However, emotionally disturbed children were somewhat more likely to endorse physical punishment than previously studied children from a normal sample. Neither gender nor ethnic differences were found. Children who endorsed physical punishment were also more likely to recommend aggressive problem solutions. Key Words--Punishment, Discipline, Child abuse, Misbehavior, Emotionally disturbed.
INTRODUCTION PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT and its effects on children have been studied rather extensively by social scientists. However, the findings from that research are neither consistent nor conclusive in regard to the nature of the relationship between parental use of physical punishment and one possible outcome of its use, aggression during childhood or later in adulthood. On one side are those who maintain that parental use of physical discipline in childhood, especially extreme physical discipline, is associated with both childhood and adult aggression (e.g., Huesmann, Eron, Lefkowitz, & Walder, 1984; Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980). On the other side are those who challenge the assertion that parental disciplinary practices are associated with aggression in childhood or adulthood (Jayaratne, 1977; Pagelow, 1984; Ringwalt, Browne, Rosenbloom, & Evans, 1987). In the field of family violence it has been widely assumed that physical punishment by parents constitutes one form of violence (cf., Straus, et al., 1980), a very important one insofar as spanking and other "socially acceptable" forms of physical punishment are so nearly universal. It has long been asserted by family violence experts that "violence begets violence" (Straus, et al., 1980), and that individuals learn to become violent in one of two ways: by experiencing such behavior directly or by observing it during childhood. This has been referred to as the "intergenerational transmission theory" (Herrenkohl, Herrenkhol, & Toedter, 1983). The assertion that people are violent as adults primarily because of exposure to violence in childhood has been dit~cult to prove empirically, however. In this context it has been observed that violence is learned behavior that need not be directly and positively reinforced in order to be acquired as a response pattern (Bandura, Received for publication November 27, 1989; final revision received February 2 I, 1990; accepted February 28, 1990. Reprint requests may be addressed to Bonnie E. Carlson, Ph.D., School of Social Welfare, 135 Western Avenue, The University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222. 19
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Bonnie E. Carlson
Ross, & Ross, 1963). It has been further observed that most people have their first experience with violence in their families of origin in the form of socially sanctioned physical discipline, usually before their first birthday (Wauchope & Straus, 1987). Physical punishment is said to implicitly establish the legitimacy of using physical force to make family members comply and begins to establish a connection between love and violence. Despite an extensive research tradition and much theorizing about the association between physical punishment and aggression, seldom have children themselves been queried about their views on discipline. What are children's perceptions about punishment? Are their views at all related to the discipline they have experienced? If violence is learned by at least some people via physical punishment, at what point does such learning begin to manifest itself?.Are children who endorse physical methods of punishment more likely to also use aggressive strategies to resolve problems as some have suggested? Children's beliefs and ideas about discipline, while not always predictive of actual behavior, are nonetheless valid subjects for inquiry insofar as such cognitions mediate the commission of aggressive acts. The research described here is a modified replication of an earlier study exploring normal children's beliefs about discipline, physical punishment in particular (Carlson, 1986). In the earlier study surprisingly few recommendations of physical types of punishment were found (only 6.4% of the total 804 responses of two hundred 9- to 12-year-old children), even in response to behaviors children perceived to be very bad. Overwhelmingly, even when behavior was judged very bad, participants recommended that parents talk to misbehaving children about what they did wrong as the most effective form of discipline, so that children could understand what they did wrong and not do it again. Virtually all of the corporal punishment recommended consisted of spanking, rather than hitting with a belt. No participant suggested that a child be disciplined physically for a nonaggressive act. That is, the only misbehaviors that elicited physical punishment responses were those that actually consisted of aggressive misbehavior (hitting a sib or fighting with a peer). Children were twice as likely to recommend physical punishment in response to familial aggression (hitting a sib) compared to aggression against a peer, even though peer aggression was evaluated as more serious on average. These findings suggest a possible association between aggression, especially familial aggression, and physical punishment among normal children. Since we could not inquire about the actual discipline children received at home, it was impossible to establish whether a relationship existed between their own discipline experiences and the kinds of punishment they endorsed. The replication had two goals. First, we wanted to learn more about how the views of a clinical sample were similar to and different from those of a sample of well-functioning children. There are at least two reasons to suspect that emotionally disturbed children might be more willing to use aggression than normal children, with exposure to severe discipline hypothesized to be the mediating variable. First, many emotionally disturbed children have been the victims of child abuse, and their problematic behaviors are the result of such victimization (Shirk, 1987). As a consequence of their victimization they have also been exposed to aggressive role models. In addition, even nonabused, emotionally disturbed children are likely to engage in difficult behavior that might tend to elicit more extreme disciplinary responses from parents, including severe physical discipline, due to the frustration of coping with an emotionally disturbed child. The second goal was to see if there was a relationship between children's inclination to use physical punishment in response to misbehavior and their willingness to resort to physical aggression to resolve interpersonal disagreements. Two formal hypotheses were explored. First, abused children were hypothesized to be more likely to endorse physical punishment than nonabused children within this clinical sample. Second, we hypothesized that abused children would be more likely to choose aggressive problem solutions than nonabused children. In addition, children from the clinical sample
Children's beliefsabout punishment
21
would be compared with children from the normal population studied previously in terms of their willingness to endorse physical punishment. We also had an interest in further exploring gender differences, which were notably absent in the original study despite predictions based on child development literature (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974). Ethnic differences were also of interest, insofar as black children have been said to experience more violence in their homes than white children (Hampton, 1987), as were social class differences.
METHOD
The Sample These issues were investigated in a study of 58 emotionally disturbed children ages 7 to 12 (X = 10.27) from two residential treatment settings in suburban Boston. Many of these children were suspected of having been physically or sexually abused by a parent prior to placement. Unfortunately, it was impossible to obtain highly accurate information about abuse status, and we were forced to rely on the clinical impressions of relevant professional staff for this determination. The limitations of these judgments are acknowledged, and related findings should be regarded as tentative. Most of the sample came from lower- or working-class families in New England; only 10% of the subjects were from middle- or upper middle-class families. In this sample 78% of the children were white, 17% were black, and 5% were Puerto Rican. Based on the age and social class backgrounds of the sample, recent data from a large, nationally representative sample of parents suggest that most of the respondents were likely to have been subjected to at least minor violence in the form of socially approved physical discipline prior to placement (Wauchope & Straus, 1987). Extrapolating from those data, approximately 12% of this sample was likely to have experienced severe violence, such as being kicked, punched, burned, or threatened with a weapon. Unfortunately, only 17% of the sample (n -- 10) were girls. For the most part this unbalanced sex distribution reflects the gender composition of residentially placed, latency-aged children, where boys predominate. An examination of gender differences was undertaken; however the results can only be seen as suggestive due to the small number of responses from girls. Each participant was asked to respond to a brief questionnaire administered by a trained graduate student in social work. In Part I, subjects were presented with four vignettes depicting different types of child misbehavior. Sex of target child in the stories was matched with sex of participant to promote identification by the subject with the target child. Two child misbehaviors were nonaggressive (lost a pen, took money from a parent's wallet), and two were aggressive (hit younger sibling, hit a peer). After hearing each story the child was asked to put him/herself in the role of parent and determine first how "bad" the misbehavior was ("hardly at all," "kind of bad" or "very bad"). Next, the subject was asked what would be the "best thing to do" if he/she were the parent of the misbehaving child, choosing from a list of six predetermined choices: nothing; talk to the child about what he/she did wrong; don't let the child play with his/her friends; take away TV or allowance; spank the child with your hand; or hit the child with a belt. Then the subject was asked why that would be the best thing to do. Finally, the subject was asked which of the options would be the worst thing to do if he/she were the parent, and why. In Part II participants heard two vignettes depicting problem situations likely to be encountered by a child: one with a sibling and one with a peer. In the peer problem a child's school-
Bonnie E. Carlson
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Table 1. Recommended Discipline By Vignette Response
Lost Pen
Took Money
Hit Sibling
Peer Fight
Totals
Nothing Talk to the child No playing with friends No TV, allowance Spank Hit w i t h a b e l t
3 (5.2)* 41 (70.7) 4 (6.9) 10 (17.2) ---
I (1.7) 26 (44.8) 2 (3.4) 25 (43.1) 2 (3.4) 2 (3.4)
2 (3.4) 25 (43.1) 6 (10.3) 11 (19.0) I1 (19.0) 3 (5.2)
4 (6.9) 19 (32.8) 15 (25.9) 7 (17.2) 7(12.1) 3 (5.2)
10 (4.4) 11 I (48.5) 27 ( I 1.8) 53 (23.1) 20 (8.8) 8 (3.5) 229
* Column percentages are in parentheses
book and homework were taken by another child who threatened to destroy them. In the sibling problem a disagreement arose over which television program to watch. Subjects were asked to choose a solution from a list of five options, one of which was aggressive (hit the child). In each case the subjects were asked why they made that choice; and if they did not opt to hit the other child, why they chose not to hit. Only 43 children completed this part of the study due to an administrative error. Responses on Part I were compared with those on Part II to explore whether there was any association between endorsement of physical punishment for discipline and selection of aggressive solutions in the problem situation.
RESULTS
Punishment Vignettes Table 1 depicts the distribution of responses across the four vignettes in terms of the best thing to do if the subject were the parent of the misbehaving child. It can be seen that on the first vignette (Lost Pen) no one recommended either form of physical punishment, the modal response being talk to the child. On the Took Money vignette, four subjects endorsed physical punishment (two each for spanking and hitting with a belt), with most of the remainder of the sample split between talking to the child and taking away TV or allowance. However, on the Hit Sibling vignette, almost one-fourth of the sample recommended spanking (n = 11) or hitting with a belt (n = 3), although the modal response here too was to talk to the child. Finally on the Peer Fight vignette, 17% of the sample r e c o m m e n d e d spanking or hitting with a belt. The modal response was to not allow the child to play with friends, followed by talking to the child. Across all four vignettes the modal response was talk to the child, accounting for just under half(48.5%) of the responses, as can be seen in Table 1, Physical punishment (spanking, 8.8% and hitting with a belt, 3.5%) constituted 12.3% of the total responses. Thus, children from the clinical sample were almost twice as likely as the 6.4% from the original nonclinical sample to endorse physical punishment for the same four misbehaviors (Carlson, 1986), in support of the second hypothesis. There was little variation in the degree of seriousness of the four misbehaviors as perceived by the sample. Between 62% and 76% of the sample saw each of the four misbehaviors as very bad, with 5-10% perceiving the depicted misbehaviors as not at all bad. Cross-tabulations were performed on recommended outcomes by perceived seriousness for all four vignettes. The modal response at all three levels of seriousness for all but one vignette was to talk to the child about what he/she did wrong. The exception was the vignette where the child got into a fight with a peer and broke his/her glasses. In this case the modal response (n = 11) for the 39
Children's beliefs about punishment
23
Table 2. Type of Discipline Recommended, by Child Abuse History Type of Discipline Vignette Took money Abused Nonabused Hit sibling Abused Nonabused Peer fight Abused Nonabused
Physical
Nonphysical
4 0
32 22
8 16
28 6
9 I
23 21"
*X 2(1.= 58)=4.00, p < . 0 5 .
children who rated this as very bad was don't let him/her play with his/her friends, followed by talk to the child (n = 10). Thus, it can be concluded that for the most part, irrespective of perceived seriousness, these children recommended talking to the child as the best thing for parents to do in response to misbehavior. Furthermore, in the exception, the discipline recommended was clearly related directly to the misbehavior. Children's perceptions of seriousness were also examined in relation to selections of physical versus nonphysical punishment. On the three vignettes where physical punishment was recommended, the overwhelming majority of those recommending it perceived the misbehavior as very bad versus kind of bad; no child choosing physical punishment perceived the misbehavior as not at all bad. Thus, on Took Money, 3 out of the 4 children recommending physical punishment perceived behavior as very bad, as did 10 out of the 14 who chose physical punishment on Hit Sibling, and 9 out of the 10 selecting physical punishment on Peer Fight. This would suggest that perceiving a misbehavior as very bad is a virtual prerequisite to recommending physical discipline. Recommended discipline was then explored according to child abuse history, collapsing discipline responses into two categories, nonphysical and physical. The first vignette (Lost Pen) was not considered since no one endorsed physical discipline. On the Took Money vignette, the chi-square analysis approached significance, x 2 (1, N = 58) = 2.63, p < . 10. As can be seen in Table 2, all four subjects endorsing physical punishment came from the abused group. On the Hit Sibling vignette, abused children were slightly, but not significantly, less likely to recommend physical punishment than nonabused subjects (22% versus 27%). The reverse pattern was observed on the Peer Fight vignette where abused children were significantly more likely to recommend spanking or hitting with a belt than the nonabused children, x 2 (1, N = 58) = 4.00, p < .05. Thus, there are some indications of an association between being abused and willingness to use physical punishment, although the relationship is not consistent, providing only partial support for the first hypothesis. To reduce the data and obtain an overview across all four misbehaviors, it was decided to aggregate the responses across all four vignettes, differentially weighting responses consisting of nonphysical punishment, socially acceptable violence (spanking), and abusive violence (hitting with a belt). Accordingly, nonphysical punishment was recoded as 0, spanking as 1, and hitting with a belt as 2. Best-thing-to-do scores were then summed across the four vignettes. Total scores could vary between 0 and 8, with higher scores indicating greater endorsement of physical punishment. The distribution of this new variable, Punish, was then examined. Punish scores ranged from 0 to 3. Over half of the sample (57%) achieved a score of 0 on this
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Bonnie E. Carlson
variable, indicating they did not endorse physical punishment on any of the vignettes. Thus, physical punishment was recommended at least once by 43% of the sample. Since no one scored higher than 3 (and only one subject scored 3), no individual subject either endorsed spanking more than three times or hitting with a belt and spanking more than once. This new variable was then examined in relation to abuse history using a t test, but no significant group differences based on abuse history emerged. Thus, being abused was unrelated to propensity to r e c o m m e n d physical punishment across the four vignettes.
Gender differences. R e c o m m e n d e d punishments were then examined by sex using chi-square analysis and t tests. On the Took Money vignette, all four respondents endorsing physical punishment were boys, representing 8% of the male sample. On Hit Sibling, 27% of the boys suggested physical punishment, as did 10% of the girls. A similar pattern was observed on the Peer Fight vignette where 10% of the girls r e c o m m e n d e d physical punishment in contrast to 19% of the boys. However, even though boys were almost two to three times as likely to r e c o m m e n d physical punishment, neither difference was statistically significant. A similar pattern was found when the scaled variable, Punish, was examined in relation to gender. Boys scored higher (M = .69) than girls (-M = .30), but not significantly based on a t test. Demographic variables. For exploratory purposes responses were also examined in relation to ethnicity and chronological age. No group differences as a function of ethnicity were found on the basis of the aggregated Punish scores. Age and Punish scores were also unrelated (r = - .09). Problem-Solving Vignettes On the two problem-solving questions, subjects were asked whether they would hit another child with whom they were having the disagreement. Initially, 12% said they would hit the other child on the Takes H o m e w o r k problem, and 5% on the TV Conflict. However, when subjects were questioned further about why they would not hit, several more children indicated that they would in fact use physical aggression in that situation, a total of 33% in the Takes H o m e w o r k problem and 21% in the TV Conflict problem. Problem solutions from Part II of the instrument were also examined in relation to child abuse history. In Takes Homework, the abused subjects were almost twice as likely to say they would hit in contrast to nonabused subjects (40% versus 22%). In the TV Disagreement problem, 28% of the abused children reported that they would hit a sibling versus 11% of the nonabused children. In both cases abused children were more likely to say they would hit than nonabused, although not significantly, based on chi-square tests. Thus, the second hypothesis was not supported.
Gender differences. On the Takes H o m e w o r k problem, boys were about half as likely to say they would hit as girls, 27% contrasted with 50%. The reverse pattern was found for the TV Disagreement problem: Boys were more than twice as likely as girls to report that they would hit as compared to girls (24% versus 10%). Again, neither difference was statistically significant and no gender-related pattern in problem solutions was identified. Punishment and problem solving. Finally, willingness to use aggression as a problem solution was examined in relation to scores on the aggregate punishment variable from Part I (Punish). The findings are shown in Table 3. The distribution of Takes H o m e w o r k scores was unrelated to propensity to r e c o m m e n d physical punishment in Part I. However, a significant relationship was found between severity of discipline r e c o m m e n d e d and willingness to resort to
25
Children's beliefsabout punishment Table
3. Problem Solving Scores by Willingness to Use Physical Punishment TV Fight** Takes Homework
PUNISH Scores
No
Yes
No
Yes
0
22 (88)*
3 (12)
15 (60)
10 (40)
1
9
1
9
1
2
(90) 3 (37)
(1o) 5 (62)
(90) 5 (63)
(1o) 3 (37)
* Row percentagesare in parentheses. ** X2 (2, N = 43) = 10.28,p < .006.
aggression on the T V fight question, x 2 (2, n --- 43) -- 10.28, p < .01. A majority o f the children who had r e c o m m e n d e d spanking twice a n d / o r hitting with a belt once in Part I said they would use aggression to resolve the sibling disagreement in Part II (62%), compared to only 12% or fewer of those who recommended spanking once or not at all in Part I.
DISCUSSION The generalizability o f the study's findings is limited by the small, nonrepresentative sample on which they are based. Another limitation is the fact that the respondents could not be asked how they were actually punished in their homes, but only how they would r e c o m m e n d punishing children for four, specific types o f misbehavior. Although it is reasonable to assume that children's recommendations were closely related to their own experiences with discipline, future research needs to address the actual discipline experiences o f children as reported by the children themselves a n d / o r their parents. Overall, the responses of this clinical sample, over half o f whom came from families where they were either physically or sexually abused, are remarkably similar to responses of wellfunctioning children not in residential care. Although the misbehaviors depicted were seen as quite serious in both samples, relatively few children endorsed physical punishment when asked how they would respond as a parent. O f the total responses across the four vignettes in Part I, 12% consisted of recommendations for physical forms o f punishment, in contrast to 6% in the original study, with 43% o f this sample endorsing physical punishment. Although children from the clinical sample were somewhat more likely to suggest physical punishment, including severe physical punishment, compared to the nonclinical sample, those recommending physical discipline still constituted a relatively small minority overall. Thus, the discipline recommended by most of this clinical sample, like the normal sample studied earlier, consisted o f talking to the child about what they did wrong so that he/she could avoid doing it in the future. Also similar is the fact that most endorsements o f physical punishment (86%) were limited to the two vignettes that depicted aggressive misbehavior, in particular the one occurring in the context of the family. These findings are consistent with research on family violence showing that sibling aggression is the most frequently occurring type o f family violence (Straus et al., 1980). The findings are also congruent with the work or Felson and Russo (1988) showing that parents are more likely to punish older siblings than younger ones for fighting, especially when the older sib is male, as most o f these subjects were. There were selective indications o f a relationship between exposure to child abuse and willingness to use physical punishment in two o f the three vignettes where physical punish-
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Bonnie E. Carlson
ment was recommended. Although there was no association between abuse history and type of punishment recommended on Hit Sibling, on both Took Money and Peer Fight abused subjects were more likely to endorse physical discipline as the best thing for the parent to do. The absence of consistent differences in willingness to use physical discipline as a function of abuse history is congruent with the work of an increasing number of scholars who are questioning the presumed intergenerational transmission of abuse (Herzberger, 1983; Kaufman & Zigler, 1987; Ringwalt et al., 1987). Even where abuse history was associated with an increased tendency to endorse physical punishment, the magnitude of the relationship was modest, and it is clear that other factors influence a child's willingness to use aggression interpersonally. One factor that could be masking a relationship between child abuse and propensity to use aggression interpersonally is the weak measure of child abuse employed. Since abuse history was not systematically explored for all cases, the measure employed was based on clinical impressions and aggregated physical and sexual abuse together. It is possible that the abused group included some children who were not actually abused, or that some of the children presumed not to be abused had actually experienced physical or sexual abuse. In addition, the measure did not take into account the severity of the abuse, or its chronicity, both of which might affect the likelihood of a child becoming violent. It is also possible that in actual practice abused children will engage in more aggressive discipline as parents than they are currently reporting they will, naively thinking that they will treat their own children better than their parents threated them. Additionally, since the orientation of residential settings toward interpersonal violence is likely to discourage aggressive behavior, there may be powerful social desirability pressures influencing their responses. It is possible that the tendency to endorse physical punishment had been suppressed in children who had been in treatment for a longer period of time, for example. Parental discipline practices may also have been a subject of therapeutic work with some of the children. Limited support was obtained for the existence of a relationship between endorsement of physical punishment (and presumably being a recipient of it) and willingness to use aggression to resolve an interpersonal conflict--but only in the case of the sibling disagreement, an argument over which television program to watch. It is reasonable to assume that children's approaches to interpersonal problem solving will be influenced by their experiences with discipline as well as the communications from parents accompanying these encounters. This is a topic that should be investigated further as there appears to be no research examining type of discipline in relation to interpersonal problem solving. The relative absence of significant sex differences was also somewhat unexpected, although consistent with the previous study (Carlson, 1986). We expected to find that boys would be more likely to be willing to use and endorse physical methods of discipline based on data showing boys to be the more aggressive sex and the recipients of more physical punishment (Straus et al., 1980; Wauchope & Straus, 1987). Small differences were found in how boys and girls responded, although they were not always in the expected direction and were not statistically significant. That girls sometimes appeared more likely to endorse aggressive behavior may be an artifact of the clinical nature of this sample, where girls' aggressive behavior may have contributed to their placement. A larger sample size with a more equal distribution of boys and girls would be necessary to confirm the pattern of findings obtained here. Felson and Russo (1988) also found that girls were "just as likely to be involved in aggressive interactions" as boys in their study of childhood sibling aggression (p. 17). Consistent with these studies, Hyde (1985) concluded, on the basis of her meta-analysis on gender differences in children's aggression, that the magnitude of such differences tends to be quite small (account-
Children's beliefs about punishment
27
ing for approximately 7% of the variance in studies of children in this age group), especially in studies such as these based on self-reports. The most reasonable conclusion on the basis of these data is that male and female beliefs about family-based aggression are more similar than different. More research is needed that follows child abuse victims over time and tracks their cognitions about aggression and abuse as well as their future experiences as possible victims or perpetrators of aggressive acts. A better understanding of children's beliefs about violence and abuse should assist us in devising more effective remediation programs. Residential placement is an example of one type of program that may change children's experiences with violence by encouraging them to reflect on and modify their own behavior toward others. Acknowledgement--Special thanks to Richard Small, Executive Director, and the staffs of the Walker School, Jamaica Plain, MA, and the Italian Home for Children, Boston, MA, for their assistance with recruitment of the sample for this study.
REFERENCES Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1963). Vicarious reinforcement and imitative learning. Journal ~?[Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 601-607. Carlson. B. E. (1986). Children's beliefs about punishment. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 56, 308-312. Felson, R. B., & Russo, N. (1988). Parental punishment and sibling aggression. Social Psychology Quarterh' 5, 11-18. Hampton, R. L. (1987). Violence against black children: Current knowledge and future research needs. In R. L. Hampton (Ed.), Violence in the black family (pp. 3-20). Lexington, MA: D. C. Health. Herrenkohl, E. C., Herrenkohl, R. C., & Toedter, L. J. (1983). Perspectives on the intergenerational transmission of abuse. In D. Finkelhor, R. J. Gelles, G. T. Hotaling, & M. A. Straus (Eds.), The dark side o/families (pp. 305-316). Beverly Hills: Sage. Herzberger, S. D. (1983). Social cognition and the transmission of abuse. In D. Finkelhor, R. J. Gelles, G. T. Hotaling, & M. A. Straus (Eds.), The dark side ~?l~families(pp. 317-329). Beverly Hills: Sage. Huesmann, L. R., Eron, L. D., Lefkowitz, M. M., & Walder, L. O. (1984). Stability of aggression over time and generations. Developmental Psychology, 20, 1120- I 134. Hyde J. S. (1985). How large are gender differences in aggression? A developmental meta-analysis. Developmental Psychology, 21,722-735. Jayaratne, S. (1977). Child abusers as parents and children. Social Work, 22, 5-9. Kaufman, J., & Zigler, E. (1987). Do abused children become abused parents? American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 186-190. Maccoby, E. E., & Jacklin, C. N. (1974). The psychology afsex differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Pagelow, M. D. (1984). Family violence. New York: Praeger. Ringwalt, C., Browne, D., Rosenbloom, L., & Evans, G. A. (1987). Predicting adult approval ~?[physicaldiscipline experiences ~?['violenceand punishment. Paper presented at the Third Annual Conference for Family Violence Researchers, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, July 6-9. Shirk, S. R. (1987). The interpersonal legacy of physical abuse of children. In M. B. Straus (Ed.), Abuse and victimization across the life span (pp. 59-81). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Straus, M. A., Gelles, R. J., & Steinmetz (1980). Behind closed doors. Violence in the AmericanJiTmily. New York: Doubleday. Wauchope, B. A., & Straus, M. A. (1987). Age. class, and gender differences in physical punishment and physical abuse of American children. Paper presented at the Third Annual Conference for Family Violence Researchers, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, July 6-9, 1987.
Rrsumr--Les principes de discipline ont 6t6 6tudirs chez 58 enfants perturbrs au plan 6motionnel et placrs en institution. Soixante et un pour cent avait 6t6 physiquement ou sexuellement abusrs avant le placement. Des
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Bonnie E. Carlson
sc~nettes d6crivant des enfants qui se m6conduisent et des situations de conflits interpersonnels leur ont 6t6 pr6sent6es. Tr~s peu d'enfants recommandent des punitions physiques, y compris ceux issus de families abusives. Cependant les enfants pertub6s 6motionellement approuvent plus fr6quemment les punitions physiques qu'un groupe d'enfant normaux pr6c6demment analys6. Aucune diff6rence n'a 6t6 relev6e en fonction du sexe ou de l'origine ethnique des enfants. Les enfants approuvant les punitions physiques recommandaient aussi plus fr6quemment des solutions aggressives aux situations de conflit. Resumen--Se examinaron las creencias acerca de la disciplina de 58 menores emocionalmente perturbados en una instituci6n residencial. Sesenta y uno por ciento habian sido fisica o sexualmente abusados previo a su admisi6n. Los sujetos fueron presentados con historiales clinicos que describian malos comportamientos infantiles y situaciones interpersonales problem~iticas. Muy pocos niftos recomendaron el castigo corporal, incluyendo aquellos de familias abusivas. Pero los nifios emocionalmente perturbados estaban algo m~s inclinados a recomendar el castigo corporal que los nii~os de una muestra normal previamente estudiados. No se encontraron diferencias 6tnicas ni en cuanto a sexo. Los menores a favor del castigo corporal tambi6n estaban re;is inclinados a recomendar soluciones agresivas a los problemas.