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Change in Caregivers' Attitudes and Use of Corporal Punishment Following a Legal Ban: A Multi-Country Longitudinal Comparison
Psychology Department Faculty Publications
  • Liane Peña Alampay, Ateneo de Manila University
  • Jennifer Godwin, Duke University
  • Jennifer E Lansford, Duke University
  • Paul Oburu, Maseno University
  • Marc H Bornstein, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
  • Lei Chang, Universita di Roma Sapienza
  • Kirby Deater-Deckard, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • W. Andrew Rothenberg, Duke University
  • Patrick S Malone, Duke University
  • Ann T Skinner, Duke University
  • Concetta Pastorelli, University of Rome La Sapienza
  • Emma Sorbing, University West
  • Laurence Steinberg, Temple University
  • Sombat Tapanya, Chiang Mai University
  • Liliana Maria Uribe Tirado, Universidad San Buenaventura
  • Saengduean Yotanyamaneewong, Chiang Mai University
  • Suha M Al-Hassan, Hashemite University
  • Dario Bacchini, University of Naples Federico II
  • Laura Di Giunta, University of Rome La Sapienza
  • Kenneth A Dodge, Duke University
  • Sevtap Gurdal, University West
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-14-2021
Disciplines
Abstract

We examined whether a policy banning corporal punishment enacted in Kenya in 2010 is associated with changes in Kenyan caregivers’ use of corporal punishment and beliefs in its effectiveness and normativeness, and compared to caregivers in six countries without bans in the same period. Using a longitudinal study with six waves of panel data (2008–2016), mothers (N = 1086) in Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Thailand, and United States reported household use of corporal punishment and beliefs about its effectiveness and normativeness. Random intercept models and multi-group piecewise growth curve models indicated that the proportion of corporal punishment behaviors used by the Kenyan caregivers decreased post-ban at a significantly different rate compared to the caregivers in other countries in the same period. Beliefs of effectiveness of corporal punishment were declining among the caregivers in all sites, whereas the Kenyan mothers reported increasing perceptions of normativeness of corporal punishment post-ban, different from the other sites. While other contributing factors cannot be ruled out, our natural experiment suggests that corporal punishment decreased after a national ban, a shift that was not evident in sites without bans in the same period.

Citation Information
Alampay, L. P., Godwin, J., Lansford, J. E., Oburu, P., Bornstein, M. H., Chang, L., Deater-Deckard, K., Rothenberg, W. A., Malone, P. S., Skinner, A. T., Pastorelli, C., Sorbring, E., Steinberg, L., Tapanya, S., Uribe Tirado, L. M., Yotanyamaneewong, S., Al-Hassan, S. M., Bacchini, D., Di Giunta, L., … Gurdal, S. (2021). Change in caregivers’ attitudes and use of corporal punishment following a legal ban: A multi-country longitudinal comparison. Child Maltreatment. https://doi.org/10.1177/10775595211036401