Maternal understanding of child discipline and maltreatment in the United States, South Korea, and Japan

Accepted Manuscript Maternal understanding of child discipline and maltreatment in the United States, South Korea, and Japan

Heimi Son, Young Ae Lee, Dong Hyun Ahn, Stacey N. Doan PII: DOI: Reference:

S0190-7409(17)30521-2 doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.10.015 CYSR 3527

To appear in:

Children and Youth Services Review

Received date: Revised date: Accepted date:

21 June 2017 12 October 2017 12 October 2017

Please cite this article as: Heimi Son, Young Ae Lee, Dong Hyun Ahn, Stacey N. Doan , Maternal understanding of child discipline and maltreatment in the United States, South Korea, and Japan. The address for the corresponding author was captured as affiliation for all authors. Please check if appropriate. Cysr(2017), doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.10.015

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Maternal Understanding of Child Discipline and Maltreatment in the United States, South Korea, and Japan

Heimi Son Lesley University, School of Education, 29 Everett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA, [email protected]

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Young Ae Lee

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Sookmyung Women’s University, Graduate School of Psychotherapy, Play Therapy, 100 Cheingpa-ro 47-gil, Youngsan-gu, Seoul 04310, South Korea, [email protected]

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Dong Hyun Ahn Hanyang University, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine & Mental Health Research Institute, 222-1, Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, South Korea, [email protected]

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Stacey N. Doan Claremont McKenna College, Department of Psychology, 850 Columbia Ave, Claremont, CA 91711, USA, [email protected]

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The corresponding author, Young Ae Lee, can be reached at Sookmyung Women’s University, Graduate School of Psychotherapy, Play Therapy, 100 Cheingpa-ro 47-gil, Youngsan-gu, Seoul 04310, South Korea, [email protected]

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Funding: This research was supported by the Sookmyung Women’s University Research Grants [1-1603-2027].

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Abstract

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The purpose of this study is to examine American, Korean, and Japanese mothers’ perceptions of maltreatment, and the factors influencing those perceptions in the context of general parenting and discipline. Through a cross-cultural comparative approach, we hope to identify potential universalities as well as cultural specific perceptions of parenting behaviors. For this purpose, a total of 153 mothers with a child aged 3 to 6 years participated in the current study. Participants came from East Coast of the United States (N=48); Seoul, Korea (N=65); Japan (Tokyo and Saitama) (N=40). A modified version of a previously established questionnaire (Ahn, Park, & Lee, 1998) assessed mothers’ attitudes towards multiple disciplinary behaviors. This questionnaire presented 17 specific vignettes describing disciplinary scenarios that could occur while disciplining children in everyday life, some of which could be perceived as physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. Results of the study suggest significant differences between groups in terms of maternal perceptions of maltreatment and the factors influencing maternal perceptions. American mothers reported the highest mean score among the three countries in perceiving discipline centered on corporal punishment as physical abuse. Korean mothers displayed a dual attitude of perceiving the scenario as maltreatment, but also rating it as likely to occur in everyday life. Japanese mothers showed the most permissive attitude toward harsh parental behaviors among the three countries on the grounds that they considered a strict and punitive attitude as a method of discipline. Overall, mothers of all three countries had the lowest scores for perceiving the vignette corresponding to neglect as maltreatment.

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Keywords: Discipline, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Neglect, Cross-cultural understanding, Maternal perception

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Maternal Understanding of Child Discipline and Maltreatment in the United States, South Korea, and Japan 1. Introduction

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Child-rearing beliefs and parental behaviors exert influence on children’s developmental outcomes. Parents have different beliefs and values regarding disciplinary practices; these perspectives and subsequent parenting behaviors often stem from traditional child-rearing patterns of the culture to which the family belongs (Hetherington & Parke, 1999). Methods of parental discipline and their efficacy have been debated in many countries; the effect of physical discipline (e.g., corporal punishment) has been most controversial (Holden, 2002). Research examining parental use of corporal punishment suggests that physical discipline and abuse exist on a continuum. Importantly, physical abuse may often occur in the context of every day discipline (Straus & Kantor, 1994). Glaser’s (2011) study describing a conceptual framework for emotional abuse and neglect proposes that there is also a connection between discipline and emotional abuse, classifying harsh and inconsistent discipline into a category of emotional abuse. In contrast with emotional abuse, physical abuse is the most widely reported and studied type of child maltreatment since it leads to immediate and observable harm. Emotional abuse and neglect resulting in invisible identification and consequences (i.e., no physical signs of injury) tend to be underreported and less emphasized. Therefore, emotional abuse that is difficult to predict and measure actual harm has rarely been discussed, especially with relation to child discipline (Konstantareas & Desbois, 2001). Despite these difficulties, many researchers who have focused more on child neglect and emotional abuse have reported that those subtypes of maltreatment may be more prevalent than physical abuse as the forgotten forms of maltreatment (Cawson, Wattam, Brooker, & Kelly, 2000; Goldman, Salus, Wolcott, & Kennedy, 2003; Hildyard & Wolfe, 2002). Reasons for the relative lack of attention to child neglect include the fact that laws on reporting abuse do not always require the mandatory reporting of neglect, and the inherent vagueness about what constitutes neglect (Bede, 2015).

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Cross-cultural variations in beliefs about parental child-rearing attitudes and disciplinary practices indicate that there is no universal standard for optimal childcare, and therefore no global conceptualization for what constitutes child maltreatment (Bornstein & Lansford, 2009). This work suggests that each country has its own distinctive cultural norm with respect to childcare and discipline. For example, parental behaviors viewed as abusive in one society may be interpreted as appropriate discipline in another cultural context. Nevertheless, researchers have proposed a universal definition that can be used internationally and capable of being applied to a variety of cultural contexts, albeit with a warning against one-sided transfer of knowledge from Western theory (Finkelhor & Korbin, 1988). However, research on maltreatment has focused exclusively on Western literature, although child maltreatment occurs everywhere (Segal, 2008). There is tremendous need for cross-cultural research of maltreatment to highlight similarities and differences across cultural boundaries – this is particularly essential for understanding norms around parenting behaviors that may verge on maltreatment, as well as 3

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT for researchers to clearly see the rates of its prevalence. Since culture has been shown to be crucial in explaining parent-child relationships or child-rearing practices (Bornstein, Putnick, & Lansford, 2011), it is likely that cultural contexts influence the extent to which parents perceive which types of behaviors constitutes abuse.

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2. Culture and parenting beliefs around discipline

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Parental beliefs about children’s misbehaviors, as well as their knowledge on how to correct and discipline children, determine parenting behaviors and practices. Under the influence of Confucianism, Eastern cultures (e.g., East Asians from China, Japan, and Korea) place great value on authoritarian, patriarchal, and hierarchical family structures that emphasize a close bond within the family, interdependence, and mutual obligations, whereas Western cultures emphasize independence, autonomy, and self-sufficiency of the individual members of the family (Gill & Drewes, 2005). In addition, a typical Western family is constructed around a child-centered relationship, where the child is respected as an individual and as the member of the society. On the other hand, children in Eastern families are considered as the sum of all the generations of their family and as members of a family unit; children are expected to be obedient, respectful, and humble at home and successful in school (McGoldrick, Giordano, & Garcia-Preto, 2005). Thus, Asian parents are more likely than American parents to use punishment in response to a child’s perceived misbehavior (Ng, Pomerantz, & Lam, 2007). In many Asian countries, physical discipline (e.g., corporal punishment) is seen as the most effective form of discipline to instill children’s compliance and respect (Ngiam & Tung, 2016). Hierarchical relationships in Asian families, which is based on Confucian system, allows parents to perceive their children as their possessions. Hahm and Guterman (2001) suggest that child maltreatment may result from the Confucian hierarchical system which emphasizes filial piety, deep-seated norms of obedience, parents’ high expectation for their children’s success, and parental beliefs about physical discipline. Consistent with this cross-cultural perspective, one study recently suggested the necessity for research into child maltreatment to examine the parameters for acceptable and unacceptable discipline behaviors of parents both between and within cultures (Crews & Crews, 2010). Past literature examining the role of parental discipline has not clearly defined what differentiates abuse from violent discipline; there is no consensus on the demarcation between harsh discipline and abuse despite current efforts to make such a distinction within an American cultural context (Benjet & Kazdin, 2003; Fréchette, Zoratti, & Romano, 2015; Ho & Gross, 2015; Whipple & Richey, 1997). However, we know of no cross-cultural work that has examined the ambiguity between discipline and abuse. Furthermore, research examining harsh discipline and abuse has mostly focused on documenting its consequences on the adjustment to childhood and adulthood (Lansford et al., 2005). While there are numerous studies on parental use of physical discipline and its effects on children’s development, little is known about cross-cultural research that examine how people perceive discipline and abuse differently. Past cross-cultural studies regarding the perceptions of child maltreatment have been conducted in college students or professionals in the United States and South Korea (Lee, Jang, & Malley-Morrison, 2008). For example, a study regarding the role of race in perceptions of corporal punishment and maltreatment found that for college students, Asian participants perceived that physically severe discipline techniques were not abusive, whereas White and African American participants agreed 4

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT on what was abusive in parental discipline practices (Kesner, Kwon, & Lim, 2016). Because the act of child maltreatment usually occurs within the family and is likely to be related to parental perceptions of physical punishment, there is a need for cross-cultural research on maternal perceptions of child discipline and maltreatment.

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3. Cultural differences in child maltreatment among the United States, South Korea, and Japan

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Previous literature showing cultural differences between Western and Eastern cultures in physical discipline implies a strong possibility that there might be cultural differences in perceptions of physical abuse or other subtypes of maltreatment (Lee et al., 2014). In the present study, three countries, the United States, South Korea, and Japan were selected to examine whether and how there are differences in perceptions of child maltreatment because of their socio-cultural differences between individualism (i.e., the United States) versus collectivism (i.e., South Korea and Japan).

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Although there is some controversy about whether corporal punishment is a form of maltreatment or discipline (Benjet & Kazdin, 2003; Graziano, Hamblen, & Plante, 1996; Straus, 1994) when examining the difference between the East and the West, a study on American parents’ use of ten different disciplinary strategies has shown that corporal punishment was one of the least common types of discipline used by parents of preschoolers, and they tended to use monitoring, verbal communication, distracting, and modeling as the most common techniques (Socolar, Savage, & Evans, 2007).

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On the other hand, in the case of the Eastern cultures of Korea and Japan, discipline based on corporal punishment is used more often, as can be observed from the Korean proverb: “the dearer the child, the sharper must be the rod” (Back et al., 2003). This is because societies in Asian culture have a more collective sense of value compared to societies in the Western world (Meston, Heiman, Trapnell, & Carlin, 1999); as a result, the desire of the group is more important than the desire of the individual (Futa et al., 2001). Therefore, societies of East Asian culture are characterized by punishment, shaming, and scolding, resulting in strict discipline of children with filial piety as the greatest value (Elliott, Tong, & Tan, 1997; Menston et al., 1999; Okamura et al., 1995). According to Okuyama’s (2017) study, there were many Japanese parents who answered, “I was trying to discipline” as the reason for child maltreatment deaths of children over three years old. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2015) also reported the number of child maltreatment cases reached a new high in 2014 with 88,931, from 1,101 cases in 1990, and concluded that this was an increase in the number of consultation requests due to changes in social awareness related to maltreatment, rather than an increase of child maltreatment cases. Although discussion on discipline and maltreatment seems to be taking place, Japan is still regarded as permissive toward strict and punitive discipline. Similarly, in Korea, an interview study of 1,094 parents with children under the age of 18 showed that 28.1% of fathers and 46.8% of mothers were spanking their child(ren) with a rod. In addition, emotional abuse of speaking 5

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recklessly and rashly, frequently using verbal threats to children, as well as neglect were reported as 19.0% and 20.2%, respectively (Lee et al., 2000). However, even societies belonging to the same East Asian region have varying perceptions and judgment of discipline and maltreatment according to the cultural characteristics of each society (Back et al., 2003). Although Korea and Japan share the characteristic of being the only OECD nations in East Asia, there is a difference: Japan was historically quicker to legislate on modernization and child maltreatment as compared with Korea. For example, in Japan, physical punishment in schools has been sanctioned by law since the late 1800s and early 1900s, whereas South Korea has prohibited physical punishment in schools since 2010 (Hwang, 2013). We can address the implications of those similarities and differences for maternal perceptions of maltreatment in the present study.

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Moreover, as Korea in particular has a competitive social structure unlike Japan, Korea has the highest rate of children’s hobby deprivation rate among OECD member nations with 52.8% (Ministry of Health & Welfare & National Child Protection Agency, 2014), and the daily learning time of a child is reported to be 4 hours 55 minutes, the highest among OECD member nations (Kim, Yim, Jang, Kim, & Hwang, 2011). As such, although parents are overloading their children with private education, as a side effect, the subjective happiness index of children is reported to be the lowest among the OECD member nations every year (Yeom, Kim, & Lee, 2014). For example, academic success is seen as an important channel to achieve success in society (Gao, Atkinson-Sheppard, & Liu, 2017), and failure to obtain good grades in school is one of the leading causes of child maltreatment in Korea. Thus, Korean parents are likely to have permissive attitudes toward the use of punishment for raising grades. Findings from a comparison of European Americans and Koreans concerning the perception of the severity of different forms of maltreatment were found by Lee and colleagues, who demonstrated that Koreans placed greater emphasis on psychological aggression and neglect, whereas European Americans focused on physical aggression as extreme abuse (Lee, Malley-Morrison, Jang, & Watson, 2014). Moreover, researchers have demonstrated that Koreans were more likely than their White and Korean American counterparts to be more tolerant of parents’ hitting their children (Lee et al., 2008). 3.1. The first research question

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Although the previous findings on cultural differences are highly suggestive, there is no direct empirical evidence investigating whether American and Asian mothers differently perceive child maltreatment in disciplinary practices. One purpose of this study was to examine whether Easterners (i.e., Korean and Japanese mothers) and Westerners (i.e., American mothers) differ in their perceptions of child discipline versus maltreatment. We hypothesized that, because of cultural beliefs about physical discipline prevalent in East Asian culture, Asian mothers would differ from American mothers with regard to their perceptions of maltreatment. Specifically, we examined whether there are cultural differences in perceptions of different forms of maltreatment (i.e., physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect) for American, Korean, and Japanese mothers: mothers were asked to assess vignettes (scenarios) that described parents’ potentially abusive or negligent behaviors toward their children in disciplinary practices to indicate whether the disciplinary actions were abusive. 6

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4. Factors influencing determination of maltreatment

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Until now, the United States, Korea, and Japan have tried to prevent and eradicate child maltreatment through legal intervention and changing social awareness, but maltreatment and deaths of maltreated children are still increasing. Of course, this could be the result of an increased rate of reporting incidents as a result of increase in awareness of maltreatment. However, the ambiguity of the baseline of perceptions and factors that influence behavioral change should also be considered important causes. For example, it is not easy to set a common criterion for how many times a parent hits a child or what attitude a parent takes for it be considered maltreatment (National Research Council, 1993).

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A number of researchers have tried to develop a standardized classification for determining maltreatment based on obvious evidence and official regulations of maltreatment which influence perceptions of maltreatment (Fakunmoju et al., 2013). As noted by English, Bangdiwala, and Runyan (2005), many researchers have examined dimensions to determine maltreatment status, including severity, frequency, chronicity, duration, type, age of onset, and perpetrator type (Also, the Maltreatment Classification System (MCS), developed by Barnett, Manly, and Cicchetti (1993, as cited in Manly, 2005) includes dimensions such as subtypes, timing of maltreatment (age of onset, frequency of episodes, chronicity, duration, and developmental period), relationship of perpetrators, occurrence of separations and placements, and severity of maltreatment incidents.

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Specifically, with regard to the official regulations of maltreatment, it is necessary to consider legal definitions of child maltreatment for determining maltreatment. We found overlapping factors as the determinants of maltreatment between the definition of child maltreatment in the three countries (i.e., the United States, Korea, and Japan) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) through a comprehensive literature review as follows (Jent et al., 2011; Kim, 2014; Ministry of Health & Welfare & National Child Protection Agency, 2014; National Research Council, 1993; Oh, 2016): willful act of the primary caregiver, children’s severity of injury or harm, and aftereffects (impairment of physical, mental, or emotional health). Considering the two perspectives (e.g., obvious evidence and official regulations of maltreatment), Ahn, Park, and Lee’s (1998) study about the attitudes toward child abuse in Korea classified the basis of determining maltreatment as the acceptance level, appropriateness of discipline method, intensity of disciplinary action, contingency, psychological harm, psychological aftereffects, and justification as discipline. : 4.1. The second research question The second objective of this study was to examine which factors influence maternal perception when assessing if some disciplinary actions are acceptable versus unacceptable in our scenarios. The maternal perception of discipline versus maltreatment would be partly influenced by a variety of factors. For example, we sought to identify whether some disciplinary actions are perceived as maltreatment, and if the perception of maltreatment can be determined by disciplinary method, intensity of disciplinary action, or psychological aftereffects on the child in the scenarios. Given 7

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT this example, it is likely that the mother perceives the disciplinary action as maltreatment because the discipline method is inappropriate, the disciplinary action is severe, or the child would be traumatized by the disciplinary action. We predicted that mothers in the three countries would report the factors influencing maltreatment perception differently. 5. Method 5.1. Participants and Data Collection

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The participants of this study were 153 mothers with children aged three to six attending preschools or kindergartens located in East Coast of the United States (e.g., New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, and New York) (N=48), Seoul, Korea (N=65), and Japan (e.g., Tokyo and Saitama) (N=40), who consented to participation in this study. This age group was chosen because the period of early childhood between three and six years of age is when autonomy and initiative develop, and when the conflict between parents and children escalates. For this study, researchers in Korea and Japan contacted school teachers and principals at several preschools via email and phone calls. Upon consents from the principals and teachers, a preschool in both Korea and Japan was randomly selected by the researchers. They visited the preschools directly to explain the research purpose, and conducted a survey on mothers who had agreed to participate in the study by sending out a research bulletin. Mothers completed the surveys at their homes and brought them to the schools. One hundred percent of those recruited agreed to participate and they all responded to their surveys in both Korea and Japan. In the United States, researchers visited preschools and mothers who agreed to participate in the research who signed the consent form and responded to an online survey (i.e., Survey Monkey.com). A total of 167 mothers were collected. However, 153 mothers were included in the final analysis.

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5.2. Measurement

5.2.1. Perceptions of discipline and maltreatment

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To investigate the differences between American, Korean, and Japanese mothers in their perceptions of discipline and maltreatment, we modified a questionnaire based on the questionnaire used in Ahn and colleagues’ (1998) study about the attitudes toward child abuse in Korea. The questionnaire presented 17 specific vignettes describing disciplinary scenarios that could occur while disciplining children in everyday life, but which may include suspicions of physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect (Table 1). Table 1. The types, domains, and contents of maltreatment vignettes Type PHY

Domain

Vignette Contents

Eating habits

1. A five-year-old child does not eat. Therefore, the mother hits the child’s back a few times and takes away the food.

Correcting habits

2. One hit on the palms for every time the six-year-old child does not listen. The child received a total of ten hits and had bruised hands. 8

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 3. Teacher pushes child to the wall, clenches the child’s two hands and Kindergarten threatens to hit him in order to fix his behavior for throwing something at a friend and making him cry.

Grades

5. To raise the grades of a child in his third year of middle school, parent hits the child in the calves for the number of ranks he has dropped in school.

Domestic dispute

6. The parents throw things at each other, hit each other, and run away from home during their disputes. Because of this, the kindergarten and elementary school children are anxious.

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4. When punishing a high school sophomore child, the parent beats him more as he rebels until his lips are torn and bleeding.

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PSY

Child’s rebellion

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7. The older four-year-old child fights every day with his younger Confinement sibling of just one year. To correct his behavior, the older child is confined in the room for 20 minutes and is not allowed to come out in a room even when he begs for forgiveness. 8. When the six-year-old child does not listen and talks back, the mother gets angry and ignores the child all day, pretending not to hear him. She does not accept the child’s apology until her anger has subsided.

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Ignoring, rejection

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9. Due to a strict child-rearing attitude, the child is scolded for the Strict rearing smallest things. As a result, the child always tiptoes around others and attitude is nervous even when she is out of the house.

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Comparing 10. When the elementary school child’s behavior is slow, she is and insulting compared to her little sibling and is called stupid or an idiot by her the child mother.

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11. When the child, who is in the fifth year of elementary school, is kleptomaniac and runs away from home, the parent kicks him out of the house naked and makes him stand outside in the middle of winter until he has reflected on his behaviors.

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Kicking out of the house

12. The child, who will be entering elementary school next year, does not finish academic activities until 9 PM due to excessive private tutoring. Therefore, she appeals to her mother that she wants to play.

Educational institution

13. When a distracted child in first grade of elementary school keeps frolicking in the classroom, the teacher openly says, “That is why you are on medication.”

Leaving at home

14. When a five-year-old child refuses to go to the store, the mother leaves the child alone and goes to the store for about 30 minutes. When she returns, she finds the child is fine at home.

Lack of discipline

15. The parent does nothing even when the elementary school child steals money from her wallet, goes to an internet cafe, and does not attend school.

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Excessive studying

NEG

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Not looking after

16. Since the divorce, the mother comes home late from work and is not able to look after her children, who are in kindergarten and elementary school. The children go to school in out-of-season clothing and without adequate school supplies.

17. When an elementary school student fights, talks, and disrupts the class, the teacher seats him in the back by himself and does not show any further interest. Note: PHY=physical type, PSY=psychological type, NEG=neglect

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Educational institution

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The questionnaire was administered to ten parents from each of the United States, Korea, and Japan, as a preliminary survey to verify the appropriateness of the questions. Specifically, the vignettes are as follows: Vignettes 1 through 5, which use corporal punishment-oriented discipline methods, are physical abuse; vignettes 6 through 13, which use a discipline method that causes emotional harm through ignoring, threats, etc., are emotional abuse; vignettes 14 through 17, which use a discipline method in which the mother is not looking after the child well, are neglect. For example, vignettes corresponding to physical abuse included disciplinary scenarios regarding eating habits such as 1) “the five-year-old child never eats well, but holds the food in her mouth. This has been going on since she was young, and the mother is now so exhausted that if she does not eat, the mother beats her back a few times and takes away the bowl of food. Then, the child cries saying sorry and begs for food,” to more clear maltreatment cases such as 4) “the child, a sophomore in high school, was not behaving well so his father beat him. However, as he continued to rebel, the father got more worked up and continued to beat him until his lips tore open and bled.” In vignettes corresponding to emotional abuse, scenarios included indirect situations such as 6) “the parents have very different personalities and always argue and fight in front of the children. They sometimes throw things or hit each other, and sometimes one of the parents leaves the house and does not come home for several days. As a result, the children, who are in kindergarten and elementary school, become nervous if their parents raise their voices even slightly” to clear maltreatment cases such as 11) “when a child in the fifth grade of elementary school had severe kleptomania, ran away from home, and did not listen to his parents, the father stripped him of all his clothes and made him stand outside the gate in the middle of winter until he reflected on his own actions.” The vignettes corresponding to neglect of caring for children comprised cases such as 14) “the mother has to go to the store for grocery shopping, but the five-year-old child refuses to go. The mother eventually left the child alone and goes to the store for around 30 minutes. When she came back, the child was fine and watching TV.” In addition, each maltreatment situation included one case that occurs in an educational institution, which allows us to identify the maltreatment perceptions of American, Korean, and Japanese mothers in disciplinary situations that occur at educational institutions, and compare the perceptions of the three countries. Then, to elicit maternal perceptions of discipline versus maltreatment, we asked a question: (1) this disciplinary action is maltreatment. The responses were placed on a 5-point Likert scale from 1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree. The higher the score for perceptions of maltreatment, the more it serves the situation as maltreatment. 10

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 5.2.2. Determination of discipline and maltreatment

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Additionally, to find out the differences between 7 factors influencing perceptions, we asked the following questions. The 7 factors were obtained from Ahn and colleagues’ (1998) study: (1) this can happen in everyday life (acceptability), (2) this disciplinary method is appropriate (appropriateness of method), (3) the intensity of this disciplinary action is appropriate (appropriateness of intensity), (4) this disciplinary action was accidental (contingency), (5) this disciplinary action does not psychologically hurt the child (no psychological harm), (6) this disciplinary action will not leave a psychological after effect on the child (no psychological aftereffects), and (7) this disciplinary action is inevitable for fixing the child’s problematic behavior (justification as a disciplinary method). The responses were placed on a 5-point Likert scale from 1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree. On the factors influencing maternal perceptions, the lower the score in (1)-(7), the more the factor serves as influential for determining the situation as maltreatment.

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5.3. Analyses

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which mothers in the United States, Korea, and Japan with children in early childhood perceive the control of a child’s behavior by punishing, causing emotional harm, or neglecting the care of the child or fixing habits, as maltreatment. Further, by examining whether there are differences by country, we intend to provide a baseline for cross-cultural perceptions of discipline and maltreatment. For this purpose, we attempted to verify (a) whether there is a difference between the American, Korean, and Japanese mothers in perceiving each case as maltreatment, (b) what the factors influencing maternal perceptions of maltreatment are, and the differences between American, Korean, and Japanese mothers with regard to these influence factors. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 23.0. Analysis included (a) a descriptive statistical analysis to examine the general characteristics of the participants in the three countries (i.e., the United States, Korea, and Japan), (b) due to the small sample size in three countries, the notable differences between the size of South Korea and the other two nations, data could not be considered either normally distributed or homoscedastic, and thus non-parametric analyses were used. Differences between the three groups in relation to the factors were assessed using the Kruskal-Wallis test, which is based on analyzing the mean rank. When a significant difference was found, post-hoc tests were conducted using Mann-Whitney’s U test to assess the differences between each pair of groups. The alpha level was at 0.05 for all analyses, with a HolmBonferroni sequential correction applied to all pairwise comparisons. In addition, differences among three countries in relation to the nominal background items were examined using the chisquare test. 6. Results 6.1. Demographics The key demographic characteristics of the mothers who participated in this study are as follows (Table 2). First, 83.4% and 78.4% of the mothers in the United States and Korea, 11

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respectively, were between the ages 31 to 40, while 55.3% of the mothers in Japan were between the ages 41 to 45. Overall, mothers between the ages 31 to 40 accounted for the highest share of the total, with 70.2%. For the education level of the participants, 29.2% of American mothers, 75.4% of Korean mothers, and 43.6% of Japanese mothers were university graduates. In terms of the mothers’ employment status, 80.0% of Japanese mothers, 52.3% of Korean mothers, and 29.8% of American mothers worked full time in the home. In response to the question about receiving education on discipline, 50.8% of Korean mothers answered that they had received it, followed by 40.0% of Japanese mothers and 38.3% of American mothers. In total, 44.1% of the participants reported having received education on discipline. A chi-square analysis suggested that respondents from Japan differed from the United States and Korea in terms of age, education, and economic status, χ2 = 61.955, p<.05, χ2 = 81.774, p<.001, χ2 = 157.11, p<.001, respectively. In addition, as a result of examining the differences of child maltreatment perceptions and the differences among factors according to demographic variables, the most significant difference was found in physical abuse. In the case of physical abuse, there were differences according to three demographic variables of the mother across five factors including perception (excluding no psychological harm, justification as a disciplinary method). In emotional abuse, there were differences in acceptability, contingency, no psychological aftereffects, and justification as a disciplinary method, while in neglect, there were differences in acceptability, contingency, and justification as a disciplinary method according to three demographic variables of the mother.

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Table 2. Demographic characteristics of the sample

South Korea (n=65)

Japan (n=40)

Total(N=153)

n(%)

n(%)

n(%)

N(%)

26(54.2)

32(49.2)

25(62.5)

83(54.2)

22(45.8)

33(50.8)

15(37.5)

70(45.8)

15(31.3)

5(7.7)

2(5.0)

22(14.4)

4 yrs

10(20.8)

20(30.8)

9(22.5)

39(25.6)

5 yrs

12(25.0)

28(43.1)

29(72.5)

69(45.4)

6 yrs

11(23.0)

12(18.5)

0(0.0)

23(15.1)

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Child’s gender

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Male

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United States (n=48)

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Female Child’s age 3 yrs

Mother’s agea 12

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Under 30

3(6.3)

0(0.0)

2(5.3)

5(3.3)

31–40

40(83.4)

51(78.4)

15(39.5)

106(70.2)

41–50

5(10.4)

14(21.0)

21(55.3)

40(26.5)

Less than university graduate

5(10.5)

2(3.0)

22(56.4)

29(19.1)

University graduate

14(29.2)

49(75.4)

17(43.6)

Graduate level or higher

29(60.4)

14(21.5)

IP

0(0.0)

43(28.3)

32(80.0)

80(52.6)

4(6.2)

6(20.7)

15(10.6)

15(23.1)

14(48.3)

38(26.8)

46(70.8)

9(31.0)

89(62.7)

33(50.8)

16(40.0)

67(44.1)

32(49.2)

24(60.0)

85(55.9)

US

34(52.3)

AN

14(29.8)

Middle income

9(18.8)

High income

34(70.8)

PT

Education about disciplinea

18(38.3)

CE

Yes No

ED

5(10.4)

M

Economic statusa Low income

29(61.7)

CR

80(52.6)

Mother’s employment status Unemployed

T

Mother’s educationa

Never

AC

Worrying about whether rearing style is discipline or maltreatment 25(52.1)

9(13.8)

4(10.5)

38(24.8)

Seldom

16(33.3)

28(43.1)

26(65.0)

70(45.8)

A little

5(10.4)

14(21.5)

9(22.5)

28(18.3)

Often

2(4.2)

6(9.2)

1(2.5)

9(5.9)

Always

0(0.0)

8(12.3)

0(0.0)

8(5.2)

Note: The total sample size for the study was N=153 participants (American, n=48; Korean, 13

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT n=65; Japanese, n=40). a There were some missing data on these variables, % are expressed relative to the number of valid cases rather than n. 6.2. Differences in Perceptions of Maltreatment among American, Korean, and Japanese Mothers

CR

IP

T

Table 3 presents the differences in perceptions of maltreatment among American, Korean, and Japanese mothers on the disciplinary attitudes described in the 17 vignettes about child discipline. A total of 17 vignettes about disciplinary situations were classified into physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect prior to being presented. 6.2.1. Differences in Perceptions of Physical Abuse

PT

ED

M

AN

US

A significant difference of total score was found between the three countries (KruskalWallis χ2 (2) = 36.74, p< .001). Pairwise comparison showed significant differences between United States and Korea, and between the United States and Japan, and between Korea and Japan. Further examination by each individual vignette was as follows: there was a significant difference in all the five vignettes between the three countries: Vignette 1) fixing eating habits, 2) correcting habits, 3) kindergarten, 4) dealing with child’s rebellion, and 5) improving grades. Group comparisons in each vignette showed the same pattern. However, pairwise comparison showed significant differences between American and Korean, and between American and Japanese. By country, the vignette with the highest mean score was 4) “dealing with child’s rebellion” in the United States and Korea. Japan had the highest mean score for vignette 5) “improving grades.” The vignette that had the lowest mean score for all three countries was vignette 1)“fixing eating habits.” 6.2.2. Differences in Perceptions of Emotional Abuse

AC

CE

There was no significant difference in the total score between the three countries (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 2.47, p= .291). However, examining each vignette, significant differences between countries were found in vignette 10) comparing and insulting the child (United States vs. Korea, United States vs. Japan, and Korea vs. Japan), and 11) kicking out of the house (United States vs. Korea and United States vs. Japan). The vignette with the highest mean score in each country was 11) kicking out of the house. The vignette with the lowest mean score in each country was 12) excessive studying for the United States and Japan. For Korea, it was vignette 8) ignoring and rejection. 6.2.3. Differences in Perceptions of Neglect A significant difference of total score was found between the three countries (KruskalWallis χ2 (2) = 6.60, p< .05). Pairwise comparison showed a significant difference between American and Japanese, and between Korean and Japanese. Among the four vignettes, there were significant differences between countries for 14) leaving a five-year-old child alone at home (United States vs. Korea and United States vs. Japan), 15) lack of discipline (United States 14

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT vs. Korea, United States vs. Japan, and Korea vs. Japan), and 17) teacher’s neglect at school (United States vs. Korea and United States vs. Japan). The vignette with the highest mean score by country was 14) “leaving a five-year-old child alone at home” in the United States, 15) “lack of discipline” in Korea, and 17) “teacher’s neglect at school” in Japan. The vignette with the lowest mean score was 15) “lack of discipline” for the United States, and 14) “leaving a five-year-old child alone at home” for Korea and Japan.

CE

PT

ED

M

AN

US

CR

IP

T

Table 3. Maternal perceptions of maltreatment: Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U post-hoc tests American Korean Japanese Significant Kruskal-Wallis (n=48) (n=65) (n=40) paired comparisonsa, b Mean Mean Mean M±SD M±SD M±SD χ2 p Rank Rank Rank PHY 1 4.15±0.98 96.57 3.48±1.01 68.01 3.40±0.96 62.54 17.93 .000 A vs K A vs J 2 4.49±0.80 98.95 3.72±1.15 68.84 3.63±0.98 62.58 20.07 .000 A vs K A vs J 3 4.30±1.20 91.73 4.03±0.85 71.09 3.95±0.81 65.38 10.69 .005 A vs K A vs J 4 4.96±0.20 106.67 4.29±0.74 67.52 4.00±0.88 55.65 42.84 .000 A vs K A vs J 5 4.87±0.40 101.52 4.08±0.94 59.19 4.48±0.60 75.23 32.44 .000 A vs K A vs J Total 22.77±2.30 108.67 19.49±3.01 62.75 19.45±3.05 61.04 36.74 .000 A vs K A vs J K vs J PSY 6 4.00±1.16 73.95 4.26±0.85 81.45 4.00±1.04 71.46 1.72 .423 3.63±1.24

69.15

4.08±0.83

83.62 3.80±0.94

71.50

3.87 .144

-

8

3.59±1.36

80.11

3.49±0.95

72.20 3.68±0.86

77.45

1.02 .599

-

9

3.83±0.90

85.12

3.69±0.77

75.59 3.55±0.90

66.18

4.84 .089

-

10

4.72±0.50

93.87

4.42±0.61

74.44 4.00±0.96

57.99

18.14 .000

11

4.89±0.38

90.73

4.52±0.62

66.83 4.60±0.67

72.45

12.77 .002

A vs K, A vs J K vs J A vs K A vs J

AC

7

15

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3.22±1.25

75.11

3.51±0.99

84.00 3.10±0.78

64.03

5.73 .057

-

13

4.15±1.09

75.16

4.38±0.65

79.30 4.18±0.90

71.60

.94 .624

-

32.35±3.99 81.30 30.90±4.44 67.54

2.47 .291

-

A vs K A vs J A vs K A vs J K vs J -

Total 31.32±6.43 77.49

107.99 2.77±1.12

64.63 2.45±1.18

54.49

40.79 .000

15

2.63±1.27

53.07

3.78±0.97

92.13 3.33±0.96

72.77

23.77 .000

16

3.28±1.36

77.18

3.28±1.08

74.91 3.30±1.04

17

2.80±1.36

56.36

3.71±1.01

84.73 3.70±0.99

Total 9.96±2.44

84.08

9.83±2.24

78.36 9.00±2.54

IP

CR 74.51

.11 .947

84.40

14.26 .001

61.06

6.60 .037

US

AN

T

NEG 14 4.13±1.16

A vs K A vs J A vs J K vs J

ED

M

Note: PHY=physical type, PSY=psychological type, NEG=neglect American= A, Korean= K, Japanese= J a Comparisons made using and the Mann-Whitney U test b Pairwise comparisons significant after applying a Holm-Bonferroni sequential correction. * p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001

PT

6.3. Differences in the Factors Influencing Perception of Maltreatment among American, Korean, and Japanese Mothers According to Type of Maltreatment

AC

CE

Table 4 presents the differences in the factors influencing maternal perceptions for perceiving the vignettes as maltreatment by each subtype. The higher the mean total score of each factor, the more it serves as the factor for perceiving the vignette as “discipline,” and the lower the mean total score, the more it serves as the factor for perceiving the vignette as “maltreatment.” The maximum value of the mean total score varied according to each maltreatment category, with physical abuse M=25, emotional abuse M=40, and neglect M=20. There were partially significant differences across the United States, Korea, and Japan in the factors influencing perception of maltreatment. 6.3.1. Acceptability In perceiving the degree of acceptability as ascertained by the questions (what is the possibility of this occurring in daily life) of the disciplinary vignettes presented, there was a significant difference of total score between the three countries in terms of physical abuse (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 53.00, p< .001), emotional abuse (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 61.22, p< .001), and neglect (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 60.77, p< .001). All of the Pairwise comparisons 16

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT show significant differences between the United States and Korea, and between the United States and Japan. 6.3.2. Appropriateness of method

IP

T

With respect to perceiving that the disciplinary method presented in the vignettes was appropriate, there was a significant difference of total score between the three countries in terms of physical abuse only (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 16.66, p< .001). Pairwise comparison showed significant differences between the United States and Korea, between the United States and Japan, and between Korea and Japan.

CR

6.3.3. Appropriateness of intensity

US

In regard to perceiving that the disciplinary intensity presented in the vignettes was appropriate, there was a significant difference of total score between the three countries in terms of physical abuse only (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 16.66, p< .001). Pairwise comparison showed significant differences between the United States and Korea and between the United States and Japan.

AN

6.3.4. Contingency

PT

ED

M

For the contingency of disciplinary action (e.g., this disciplinary action was accidental), there was a significant difference of total score between the three countries in terms of physical abuse (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 94.33, p< .001), emotional abuse (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 75.78, p< .001), and neglect (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 44.67, p< .001). Pairwise comparison of physical and emotional abuse showed significant differences between the United States and Korea, between the United States and Japan, and between Korea and Japan, but for neglect, significant differences were only found between the United States and Korea and between the United States and Japan.

CE

6.3.5. No psychological harm

AC

There was a significant difference of total score between the three countries in terms of physical abuse (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 6.66, p< .05), emotional abuse (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 11.04, p< .001), and neglect (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 10.72, p<.05). Differences between groups were reported differently depending on the type of maltreatment. To summarize, Korean mothers were most likely to report that a parenting behavior would cause the child psychological harm compared to the two countries. 6.3.6. No psychological aftereffects There was a significant difference of total score between the three countries in terms of physical abuse (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 6.35, p< .05), and emotional abuse (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 6.704, p<.001). Differences between groups were different depending on the type of maltreatment; for physical abuse, significant differences were only found between the United States and Japan, and between Korea and Japan, and for emotional abuse, only between the United States and Korea. 17

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6.3.7. Justification as a disciplinary method

IP

T

In determining that the methods were necessary in order for discipline, there was a significant difference of total score between the three countries in terms of physical abuse (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 8.74, p< .05), emotional abuse (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 12.34, p< .001), and neglect (Kruskal-Wallis χ2 (2) = 34.00, p<.001). For physical abuse, there were significant differences only between the United States and Japan. For emotional abuse, there were significant differences between the United States and Korea, and between the United States and Japan. In the case of neglect, there were significant differences between the United States and Korea, and between the United States and Japan.

M±SD

Mean Rank

M±SD

Mean Rank

KruskalWallis χ2

12.43±4.90 95.38

11.75±4.38 91.09

53.00 .000

10.49±3.54 35.30

20.64±6.84 99.03

18.50±6.78 86.98

61.22 .000

10.58±3.68 88.13

60.77 .000

8.80±2.77

94.34

16.66 .000

13.80±3.05 76.34

14.68±4.64 80.03

.72 .697

7.31±2.14

70.97

7.80±2.22

80.00

1.54 .462

Appropriateness of intensity PHY 6.32±2.08 54.37 7.38±1.94

82.10

8.20±2.62

18.51

18.51 .000

11.81±2.57 79.66

12.25±4.04 78.86

2.00 .367

7.53±1.97

7.93±2.36

34.72

PSY

14.11±5.61 72.11 79.63

AC

NEG 7.85±2.29

PSY

11.32±4.06 68.57

NEG 7.65±2.19

7.67±2.15

CE

Appropriateness of method PHY 6.87±2.85 56.91

11.48±3.62 97.75

PT

NEG 5.63±2.06

M

37.97

PSY

74.78

Contingency PHY 22.49±2.96 22.38

78.55

73.11

15.08±4.14 69.08

Significant paired comparisonsa, b

p

ED

Acceptability PHY 6.47±2.30

Mean Rank

Japanese (n=40)

AN

M±SD

Korean (n=65)

US

American (n=48)

CR

Table 4. Differences in factors influencing maternal perceptions of maltreatment: Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U post-hoc tests

80.15

.68 .712

10.30±3.22 32.58

94.33 .000

A vs K, A vs J A vs K, A vs J A vs K, A vs J A vs K, A vs J K vs J

A vs K, A vs J

A vs K, 18

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PSY

32.94±6.20 117.53 21.97±8.58 69.97

14.18±4.66 36.85

75.78 .000

A vs J K vs J A vs K, A vs J K vs J A vs K, A vs J

62.62

8.75±2.93

55.55

44.67 .000

No psychological harm PHY 7.87±2.75 78.93

7.05±2.41

66.27

8.78±3.56

88.13

6.66 .036

PSY

10.86±2.90 64.70

11.90±3.99 74.83

11.04 .004

A vs K

8.45±2.36

64.51

9.00±2.84

74.36

10.72 .005

A vs K, K vs J

No psychological aftereffects PHY 7.32±2.52 69.74 7.39±2.62

71.43

8.90±3.29

90.66

6.35 .042

12.08±3.78 78.89

6.70 .035

A vs J, K vs J A vs K

PSY

12.64±4.30 87.18

IP

CR

K vs J

8.50±2.53

67.91

9.00±2.75

78.31

3.78 .152

Justification as a disciplinary method PHY 7.28±3.47 62.94 7.70±2.64

76.70

8.63±2.87

90.23

8.74 .013

A vs J A vs K, A vs J A vs K, A vs J

57.93

10.97±2.95 79.38

11.98±3.64 88.49

12.34 .002

NEG 5.09±2.10

44.93

7.56±2.27

7.90±2.19

34.00 .000

ED

9.96±4.68

86.26

93.44

PT

PSY

83.61

M

NEG 9.61±3.20

11.17±3.88 65.98

US

NEG 10.41±3.39 91.78

AN

13.60±5.37 92.38

T

NEG 13.37±2.90 110.77 9.44±3.38

AC

CE

Note. PHY=physical type, PSY=psychological type, NEG=neglect Korean=K, American=A, Japanese=J a : Comparisons made using and the Mann-Whitney U test b : Pairwise comparisons significant after applying a Holm-Bonferroni sequential correction. * p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001.

7. Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine American, Korean, and Japanese mothers’ perceptions of maltreatment, and the factors influencing those perceptions in the context of parenting and discipline, and through the comparison of the three groups, present a baseline of determining maltreatment that can be applied universally across cultures. Mothers of young children were asked to rate three categories of parenting behaviors, including corporal punishment, emotional abuse, and neglect. Across the three cultures, there was remarkable similarity with regard to what constitutes emotional abuse and neglect. However, significant differences emerge with respect to physical abuse/corporal punishment. Our data suggest that American mothers were more likely to report parenting behaviors depicted in the scenarios as 19

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physical abuse compared to Korean and Japanese mothers. These results are consistent with findings that Eastern and Western cultures have a significantly different perspective on corporal punishment and that Korea has more tolerance for corporal punishment than the United States (Douglas, 2006; Mercurio, You, & Malley-Morrison, 2006). Likewise, this result is consistent with the findings of a cross-cultural study on perceptions of maltreatment showing that Americans were more likely than Koreans to perceive physical punishment as abusive (MalleyMorrison, Nolido, & Chawla, 2006). Although many cultures have traditionally recognized corporal punishment as a method of discipline (Raman & Hodes, 2012), in the United States, “Battered Child Syndrome” (Kempe, Silverman, Steele, Deoegemuller, & Silver, 1962) was first described as maltreatment of children and the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was enacted in 1974. It was the earliest enactment of such a law as compared with Korea and Japan. Data in the United States suggests that even for spanking, which is considered a relatively light corporal punishment, the proportion of parents reporting that they accept it as a form of discipline has decreased from 94% in the late 1960s (Straus & Mather, 1996) to 75% in 1995 (Gallup, Moore, & Schussel, 1995), to 61% in 2000 (Yankelvich, 2000). In addition, it appears that since the legal sanctions for harming children are strongly proscribed by the government in the United States, it is highly likely that corporal punishment-oriented discipline will be perceived as maltreatment even if it is a mild form compared to that taking place in Korea and Japan. In the 2000s, Korea and Japan fully recognized the seriousness of child maltreatment and have been making academic, social, and legal efforts to prevent maltreatment; therefore, there has been an increased trend of viewing corporal punishment as maltreatment in recent years. Despite the differences in social awareness and timing of legal enactment among the three countries, the definition of child maltreatment as defined in the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act in the United States, the Adolescent Protection Law in Korea, and Act on Prevention of Child Abuse, etc., in Japan, is similar (Kim, 2015). In spite of this similarity of definition of maltreatment in the laws, the main reason Korean and Japanese mothers reported relatively low perception scores of physical abuse compared to American mothers in the current study could be interpreted as cultural differences between the East and the West. Compared to the individualistic United States, Korea, and Japan in the East have been influenced by a collectivistic and hierarchical Confucian culture. East Asian parents take an authoritative attitude and expect their children to obey (Chao, 1994). In Eastern cultures, many parents do not consider their mild violent discipline as maltreatment (Ma, Chen, Xiao, Wang, & Zhang, 2011), but consider only extreme maltreatment as maltreatment (Gao et al., 2017). With this cultural background, there is likely to be little discussion on how to distinguish between physical abuse and corporal punishment in Korea and Japan of the East. For emotional abuse with the eight vignettes, there were significant differences in responses to vignette 10 (insulting the child) and vignette 11 (kicking out of the house) among the survey takers in the three countries, with American mothers having the highest scores in the perception of maltreatment. Contrary to this, American mothers had the lowest scores in vignette 7 (confinement in a room for time-out), whereas Korean mothers had the highest scores regarding the excessive time-out. It may be explained with the two cultural paradigms: “individualistic” and “collectivistic” culture (Triandis & Suh, 2002). While parenting practices with a pedagogic style in an “individualistic” culture tend to emphasize empowering children to be emotionally independent and develop interaction and language skills, parenting practices with a childcentered attitude in a “collectivistic” culture emphasize protecting children’s health and survival by responding quickly to the child’s cry, decreasing verbal interaction, and increasing physical 20

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contact (LeVine et al., 1994). Based on these differences, American mothers are more likely than Asian mothers to be comfortable with time-outs, which helps children independently organize their own emotions. Among the eight vignettes of emotional abuse, the lowest overall mean score as for vignette 12 (excessive private education). This indicates that mothers of the three countries are less likely to perceive excessive private education on children as emotional abuse. However, it is noteworthy that Korean mothers had the highest scores of viewing excessive private education as maltreatment. This result is not consistent with the earlier findings in which Korean mothers showed the lowest maltreatment perception score among the three countries for the vignette where corporal punishment is used to improve grades. In other words, Korean mothers tend to have a dual attitude toward grades; although they worry about excessive studying by their children, these concerns are not reflected in actual parenting and disciplinary practices, and they perceive that corporal punishment is appropriate if it is used for raising grades. For neglect scenarios with the total scores, there were significant differences between Japan and other two countries; that is, Japanese mothers were least likely to perceive the scenarios as maltreatment as compared with Korean and American mothers. In each of the four vignettes classified as neglect, there were significant differences among the three countries, except for one vignette. The perceptions of neglect had the lowest mean scores among the three subtypes of maltreatment. This indicates that the sensitivity for neglect, a passive form of maltreatment, is the lowest compared to physical and emotional abuse. Most notable among results for the neglect vignettes is that the average difference between the Western United States and the Eastern Korea and Japan was highest in vignette 14 (leaving the child at home alone). This finding suggests that American mothers may take the vignette as an illegal act, because of state laws prohibiting leaving children home alone until 10 to 14 years of age, and the National SAFE KIDS Campaign (2002) recommends that children not be left at home under the age of 12. However, except for this vignette, American mothers had lower perception scores of neglect scenarios compared to Korean and Japanese mothers. Considering that it is not illegal for parents to hit their children if it does not cause physical injury in all states (Benjet & Kazdin, 2003), American mothers are more likely to have a permissive attitude about neglect, a passive form that does not cause physical harm as compared with other subtypes of maltreatment. By examining the factors influencing maternal perceptions of maltreatment, we found cultural differences among the three countries. First, the major influence factor of maltreatment perceptions held by American mothers was that they should not occur in everyday life and could not be used as a method of discipline. In particular, American mothers responded sensitively to physical abuse episodes. In perceiving physical abuse, American mothers identified the factors in which the method and intensity were inappropriate and would cause psychological after effects, whereas they had the least sensitive response among the three countries to psychological harm and after effects in perceiving emotional abuse and neglect. These results are consistent with past research showing that American parents tend to focus on physical forms of parental discipline and physical types of abuse, and they have relatively neglected to recognize other forms of abuse (Malley-Morrison, 2004). Considering that 52% of American mothers who participated in this study do not worry at all about whether they are disciplining or abusing their children in their disciplinary practices, American mothers are likely to base their standard of maltreatment that is evidently apparent, physically harms the child, and is prohibited by the law. Secondly, we found that Korean mothers have a somewhat dualistic attitude toward discipline and maltreatment. Although they recognized the factors in which the method and intensity of discipline were not appropriate, therefore, the child would suffer psychological 21

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injuries and after effects in determining emotional abuse and neglect, they showed the highest level of accepting these occurrences in daily life among the three countries. This finding is consistent with past research showing that while Koreans consider emotional abuse as maltreatment, they report a high acceptance of actions suggesting emotional abuse (Ahn et al., 1998). In addition, results from the current study showed Korean mothers receive more parental education and a have higher rate of worry about whether their parenting styles are discipline or maltreatment compared to American and Japanese mothers. Such findings suggest a possibility that there is likely to be a growing knowledge and awareness of maltreatment, however, Koreans are placed in a transition period in which they struggle to apply their knowledge to their parenting practices. Lastly, Japanese mothers were most likely to endorse the idea that potentially abusive parental behaviors were not accidental, but could be seen as a form of discipline among the three countries. For example, they perceived that the method and intensity of discipline are appropriate, therefore, the child will not be psychologically harmed or develop psychological after effects with regards to the scenarios of physical abuse/corporal punishment. Japanese mothers are more likely than Korean and American mothers to accept the harsh parenting behaviors suggesting maltreatment as discipline. The findings showed similar patterns with Nakatani’s (2000) findings that Japanese mothers are permissive toward the use of corporal punishment with 47% of respondents answering, “corporal punishment is inevitable for discipline” and 49.2% of respondents answering, “if parents love their children, corporal punishment is allowed.” Similarly, in a related study of Japanese mothers with three-year-old children, 23% of respondents agreed with the statement “I think I am abusive” at a standardized baby check-up (Kawai et al., 1994). After World War II, juvenile delinquency rapidly increased in Japan and the government demanded the strengthening of strict discipline in the home (Masuda, 2002). The sociocultural perception that a child’s problematic behaviors should be treated with strict discipline may be still affecting Japanese society. Until the early 2000s, there were relatively small amounts of child maltreatment research in Japan, and research efforts and openly acknowledged public concern have gradually increased (Malley-Morrison, 2004). Moreover, the Act on Prevention of Child Abuse, etc. was enacted in 2000 after undergoing enactment and abolition of the child maltreatment prevention law (Oh, 2016). 7.1. Strengths and Limitations of the Current Study

AC

This study is one of very few that examined American, Korean, and Japanese maternal perceptions and factors influencing perceptions of discipline and maltreatment, and their similarities and differences from the perspective of each country. In order to actually reduce maltreatment, it is necessary to understand not only the perceptions towards maltreatment but also the factors influencing determination of maltreatment perceptions. Therefore, the results in this study lay preliminary ground work for providing a baseline to distinguish between normal parental discipline and child maltreatment. However, the current study has the following limitations. First, although more than 40 participants were recruited in each country, the sample size is too small to generalize the results of this study. Second, the self-report measures were used in this study, thus indirect questioning for socially-sensitive variables should be considered to prevent reporter bias. Third, due to the mixed-mode surveys (i.e., paper and web questionnaires), it must be noted that different methodology of data collection may have influenced the results. Fourth, our study was conducted 22

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on the basis of quantitative research methods, thus there is a need for a cross-cultural qualitative approach (i.e., in-depth qualitative interviews) that can identify maternal perceptions of maltreatment with a description of complex culture constructs. Fifth, the demographic background of the participants is somewhat biased. Of the factors affecting child maltreatment, the background of parents may be considered an important factor (Ono & Honda, 2017; Sidehotham & Heron, 2006). For example, low education levels and the economic status of parents have been identified as risk factors for child maltreatment (Brown, Cohen, Johnson, & Salzinger, 1998). In this study, the participants were recruited from middle-class or higher-class groups living in metropolitan cities in the United States, Korea, or Japan, which are all OECD member nations. Nonetheless, differences in age, education level, occupational status, and economic level were found in the backgrounds of Japanese mothers, resulting in significant differences among the three groups, especially in the variables related to physical abuse. Because the present study was preliminary, the findings couldn’t be generalized to the countries examined in this study. Thus, future studies may strive for large sample size to control for possible confounding factors such as socio-demographic and economic factors. Also, future study should investigate the different impacts of diverse demographics and family variables (e.g., religion, marital status, family relationships) to provide a stronger basis for cultural differences.

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8. Conclusion

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We attempted to identify the similarities and differences in the perceptions of discipline and maltreatment, and factors influencing perceptions among American, Korean, and Japanese mothers. The present research provides two conclusions. First, there are cultural differences in maternal perceptions of corporal punishment/physical abuse across three countries. Second, factors influencing maternal perceptions in determining maltreatment were differently reported among three ethnic groups. Taken together, it should be noted that although there are no major differences in the legal definition of child maltreatment among the three countries, American mothers, in particular, made the most sensitive perceptions of maltreatments explicitly prohibited by law. This is likely attributed to the fact that the United States made efforts relatively early on to improve awareness of maltreatment and enact legislation on maltreatment compared to other countries. In Korea recently, although there is a growing awareness of maltreatment due to the series of extreme maltreatment cases leading to the death, and studies on the negative effects of maltreatment, it seems that Korean mothers take a dualistic attitude because they have not found a demarcation between discipline and maltreatment. Japan had a relatively high tendency to perceive strict and punitive parenting as discipline rather than maltreatment compared to Korea and the United States due to the aftereffects and aftermath of World War II. The fact that American, Korean, and Japanese mothers, despite these cultural differences, generally made the most sensitive maltreatment perceptions about situations related to corporal punishment/physical abuse but made the lowest perceptions of maltreatment about neglect, which is maltreatment in a passive form, is something we need to consider in the future. The following implications for policy, and practice are suggested based on the findings of this study: 1) policymakers of child maltreatment preventive programs need to be aware of the different perceptions of physical discipline and maltreatment in multicultural societies that avoid simplistic solutions for international child protection policies; 2) clear laws should be enacted and enforced in each country based on the definition of maltreatment that each country has 23

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already set as a common point; 3) it is necessary to promote interest in psychological injuries and aftereffects as well as physical injuries caused by maltreatment; 4) if practitioners are trained for cross-cultural understanding of discipline and maltreatment, they will benefit from practices requiring culturally sensitive interventions for multicultural families; 5) this study can inform practitioners or school teachers what healthy disciplinary strategies are by educating parents on the detrimental outcomes of using physical/psychological aggression when disciplining their children. Of course, there is no gold standard to distinguishing between normal parental discipline and maltreatment (Benjet & Kazdin, 2003; Ripoll-Nunez & Rohner, 2006). However, as in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (The United Nations, 1989, art. 15), which states that a child is no longer subject to authority, efforts to create cross-cultural maltreatment standards should be made to ensure children’s right to survival, right to protection, right to development, and right to participation.

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Declaration of interest

Manuscript title: Maternal Understanding of Child Discipline and Maltreatment in the United States, South Korea, and Japan

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The authors whose names are listed immediately below certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest, or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript (Conflicts of interest: none).

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Author names: Heimi Son, Young Ae Lee, Dong Hyun Ahn, Stacey N. Doan

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Highlights

Manuscript title: Maternal Understanding of Child Discipline and Maltreatment in the United States, South Korea, and Japan

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• American mothers make the most sensitive perceptions about physical abuse.

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• Korean mothers have a dualistic attitude toward discipline and maltreatment.

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• Japanese mothers show the most permissive attitude toward harsh parental behaviors.

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• Mothers of all three countries have the lowest perceptions of neglect.

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