Children's Perceptions of Corporal Punishment, Caretaker Acceptance, and Psychological

Adjustment in a Poor, Biracial Southern Community

Author(s): Ronald P. Rohner, Shana L. Bourque, Carlos A. Elordi
Source: Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Nov., 1996), pp. 842-852
Published by: National Council on Family Relations
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/353974
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 RONALDP. ROHNER,SHANAL. BOURQUE,AND CARLOSA. ELORDI
University of Connecticut
Children's Perceptions of CorporalPunishment,
CaretakerAcceptance, and Psychological Adjustment
in a Poor, Biracial SouthernCommunity
This study explores two related questions about
relationships between perceived justness and per-
ceived harshness of corporal punishment, per-
ceived caretaker acceptance-rejection, and chil-
dren's psychological adjustment: Are children's
perceptions of caretaker harshness and unjust-
ness of physical punishment associated with chil-
dren's psychological maladjustment? Or does the
relationship between punishment and maladjust-
ment disappear after controlling for perceived
caretaker acceptance-rejection? The research is
based on a proportional, stratified, random sam-
ple of 281 Black and Whiteyouths in grades 3-12
within the public school system of a poor, biracial
county of southeastern Georgia. Results of struc-
tural equation modeling suggest that physical
punishment is associated with children's psycho-
logical maladjustment only if punishment is seen
by youths as a form of caretaker rejection. The
findings contribute information to an ongoing de-
bate about the relationship between physical pun-
ishment and children's psychological adjustment.
Centerfor the Study of ParentalAcceptanceand Rejection,
School of Family Studies, Universityof Connecticut,U-58,
Storrs,CT 06269-2058(rohner@uconnvm.uconn.edu).
Key Words: children's psychological adjustment, corporal
punishment, parental acceptance-rejection.
842 Journal of Marriage and the Family 58 (November 1996): 842-852
A large national, and even international, contro-
versy exists over whether corporal punishment
has negative effects on children's behavioral and
psychological adjustment (Simons, Johnson, &
Conger, 1994). Even though the popular press
and many child advocates criticize the use of cor-
poral punishment, Straus (1977, 1994) and others
(Wauchope & Straus, 1990) estimated that
90%-97% of the children in the United States
have been physically punished at some time in
their lives. Critics of corporal punishment often
cite research linking its use with negative out-
comes such as increased aggression, delinquency,
and psychosocial maladjustment in children
(Greven, 1991; Kandel, 1991; Larzelere, 1986;
McCord, 1988; Straus, 1991; Turner & Finkelhor,
1996). Harsh physical punishment, in particular,
has been correlated with increased displays of ag-
gressive behavior by children (Howes & El-
deredge, 1985). Additionally, Bryan and Freed
(1982) found that college students who reported
receiving a high level of physical punishment
when they were younger were significantly more
likely to report probleits with aggression. In addi-
tion to these reports of increased behavioral prob-
lems, Stemberg et al. (1993) found that the use of
physical punishment is associated with poor self-
esteem and emotional problems of youths.
Perceptions of Corporal Punishment
Researchers on the other side of the debate cite
conflicting evidence and believe that many of the
studies linking physical punishment with negative
consequences have methodological problems that
forbid making such conclusions (Becker, 1964;
Erlanger, 1979; Kandel, 1991; Simons et al.,
1994). Erlanger, for example, found that the cor-
relation between childhood punishment and adult
violence was, in fact, rather low. Baumrind
(1966, 1973,1994) argued that when physical
punishment is used within a loving family envi-
ronment, it is effective in reducing unwanted be-
havior without increasing aggression. Agnew
(1983) found that corporal punishment is associ-
ated with higher rates of delinquency only when
the demands placed on children are inconsistent.
If parental demands on the child are consistent,
however, corporal punishment was reported to be
negatively correlated with delinquency. Conclu-
sions such as these point to a complex relation-
ship between corporal punishment and its corre-
lates. Moreover, Lefkowitz, Eron, Walder, and
Huesman (1977) concluded that the relationship
between physical punishment and aggression is
curvilinear, where high levels of physical punish-
ment are associated with increased aggression,
but moderate levels are not.
Critics of past research also contend that many
of these studies are methodologically flawed be-
cause they fail to differentiate between the impact
of corporal punishment and the influence of other
dimensions of parenting, such as parental nonin-
volvement and parental rejection (Becker, 1964;
Rohner, Kean, & Cournoyer, 1991; Simons et al.,
1994). Simons et al., for example, found that the
lack of parental support and involvement was
more strongly associated with psychological mal-
adjustment than was the use of corporal punish-
ment. After controlling for parental involvement,
physical punishment was left unrelated to adoles-
cent aggressiveness, delinquency, or psychologi-
cal adjustment. Similarly, Larzelere, Klein,
Shumm, and Alibrando (1989) found that the
negative correlations between spanking and
youths' self-esteem and perceptions of fairness of
punishment disappeared after controlling for the
influence of positive parent-child communication.
Finally, Rohner, Kean, and Couroyer studied the
influence of corporal punishment on youths' psy-
chological adjustment as mediated by perceived
caretaker acceptance-rejection. The authors ar-
gued that many of the reported effects of physical
punishment mimic the effects of parental rejec-
tion. They found that even though corporal pun-
843
ishment did have a slight correlation with psycho-
logical maladjustment, it was negatively associat-
ed with children's psychological adjustment most
prominently when it was perceived by them to be
a form of caretakerrejection.
Because social scientists are seriously divided
over the apparent effects of corporal punishment
and because there is such widespread use of this
form of discipline, it is importantto understandits
true impact. It is clear that relationships among
corporal punishment, psychological adjustment,
and other developmental sequellae need to be de-
fined more accurately. This study seeks to expand
on the work of Rohner et al. (1991) by analyzing
interrelationships among physical punishment,
perceived caretaker acceptance-rejection, and
youths' psychological adjustment. Specifically,
this article seeks to answer the following ques-
tions: Are children's perceptions of caretaker
harshness and the unjustness of physical punish-
ment associated with children's psychological
maladjustment?Or, does the relationship between
punishment and maladjustment disappear after
controlling for perceived caretaker acceptance-
rejection?
THE RESEARCHSETTING
Research for this study was conducted in a poor,
biracial (Black and White) county of southeastern
Georgia. As is true for much of the American
South (Flynn, 1994), corporal punishment is
widely accepted within McIntosh County, the re-
search site. Two thirds of the parents there agree
that children should be physically punished when
they misbehave. In addition, 91% of the county
children have been physically punished at some
point during their lives. However, 25% of these
children have been punished physically only once
or twice.
METHOD
Sample
The sample included 281 Black and White school
children ranging in age from 8 through 18 years
(M = 12.5, SD = 3.1) in grades 3 through 12. It
was a proportional (35%) random sample, strati-
fied for sex, race, and grade in school. The sam-
ple represented all socioeconomic levels from
middle class (22%) to the chronically poor (13%).
However, the majority of children (65%) came
from skilled, semi-skilled, or unskilled working-
 844
class families (on a 6-point scale, M = 3.6, SD =
1.3). Children's social class was determined by
whichever parent held the higher status occupa-
tion. Forty-six percent of the children lived at or
below the poverty level. The sample contained
about equal numbers of females (54%) and males
(46%). Blacks (54%) and Whites (46%) were also
about evenly distributed. The sample included
only one child per household, and it excluded all
known foreign national children, as well as chil-
dren with serious mental handicaps.
Instruments and Procedures
The research reported here is part of a larger
ethnographic and quantitative study within the
county. This study is based on four standardized
self-report questionnaires. The questionnaires
were administered to the 281 youths during
school hours, and they were administered in a
counterbalanced order to minimize potential re-
sponse bias. Each of the instruments is described
below.
Parental Acceptance-Rejection/Control Question-
naire (PARQ/Control). Youths reported their per-
ceptions of their major caretaker's (usually moth-
ers) acceptance-rejection on the child version of
the PARQ/Control (Rohner, 1991). The child
PARQ/Control consists of 73 items that ask chil-
dren to reflect on their experiences of acceptance-
rejection and control (from permissiveness to
strictness) within their families. It is made up of
five separate scales. Four of the scales-warmth-
affection, hostility-aggression, indifference-
neglect, and undifferentiated rejection-relate di-
rectly to perceived acceptance or rejection by the
caretaker. Undifferentiated rejection refers to a
child's feelings of being unloved or rejected with-
out necessarily having any objective indicators
present of caretaker coldness, aggression, or ne-
glect. The fifth scale relates to perceived control
(permissiveness-strictness). The warmth-affection
scale (20 items) and the control scale (13 items)
were not used in the portion of the research re-
ported here because the control scale was not rel-
evant to the major concerns of this article, and the
warmth-affection scale did not fit well the mea-
surement model discussed later.
Youths responded to the PARQ/Control by
making judgments about how well each statement
described their caretaker's treatment of them. Ex-
amples of test items include: "My mother goes
out of her way to hurt my feelings" (perceived
Journal of Marriage and the Family
hostility-aggression); "my mother ignores me as
long as I do nothing to bother her" (perceived
indifference-neglect); "my mother does not really
love me" (perceived undifferentiated rejection).
Youths responded to items such as these on a 4-
point Likert-like scale ranging from almost al-
ways true to almost never true.
The items are keyed in such a way that the
higher the score, the more rejection youths per-
ceive. The sum of items on the PARQ (without
the warmth-affection and control scales) results in
an overall acceptance-rejection score that can
range from a low of 40-indicating maximum ac-
ceptance-to a high of 160-indicating maxi-
mum rejection. Scores of 100 or more on this re-
duced version of the PARQ/Control indicate that
the child experienced more caretaker rejection
than acceptance. Evidence regarding the validity
and reliability of the PARQ (Rohner, 1991, 1995;
Rohner & Cournoyer, 1994) demonstrates that
this measure is psychometrically sound. This
body of evidence is supported in McIntosh Coun-
ty itself where, for example, coefficient alphas on
the PARQ scales range from .78 to .94.
Physical Punishment Questionnaire (PPQ). On
the first part of the questionnaire (Rohner, 1995)
youths indicated the level of physical punishment
they experienced at the hands of their major care-
taker. The second part of the questionnaire asked
youths to reflect on their experiences of physical
punishment received from their major disciplinar-
ian. The caretaker and disciplinarian, however,
could be the same person. Respondents were
asked to make an overall, global judgment about
nine issues related theoretically to the experience
of corporal punishment. These issues included
overall frequency of punishment, overall severity
of punishment, consistency of punishment, pre-
dictability of punishment, average incidence of
physical punishment received in any week, per-
ceived fairness of punishment, perceived de-
servedness of punishment, timing of punishment
(whether it followed immediately a wrongdoing
or whether it was delayed), and caretaker's or dis-
ciplinarian's use of an explanation of what was
wrong about the punished behavior. Each of these
nine aspects of physical punishment is treated as a
discrete single-item scale.
The PPQ also includes 13 forms of punish-
ment that a child may or may not have experi-
enced. These include spanking, slapping, shoving,
yanking, kicking, beating severely with an object
(leaving a mark on the body), hitting firmly but
Perceptions of Corporal Punishment
not severely (no mark is left on the body), pulling
hair, twisting an ear, making the child kneel on
hard objects, making the child stand for a long
time, pinching, and shaking. A total score is cre-
ated from the sum of all forms of corporal punish-
ment experienced at least once. This total score
comprises the 13 items listed plus the possibility
of up to four additional write-in forms of physical
punishment. Thus the scale for forms of punish-
ment experienced can range from a low of 0
(never punished physically in any way) to a high
of 17. As shown in Table 1, significant intercorre-
lations allow two additional composite scales to
be created. The incidence of punishment and the
severity of punishment items may be summed to
create an overall measure of the perceived harsh-
ness of punishment, and the fairness of punish-
ment and deservedness of punishment items may
be summed to create an overall measure of the
perceived justness of punishment. Both of these
independent, composite variables are used in this
research. Perceived harshness of punishment in
this sample ranged from a low of 0 (never pun-
ished) to a high of 16 (punished 12 or more times
a week, and when punished, it was very hard).
Perceived justness of punishment ranges on the
PPQ from 2 (very unfair and almost never de-
served) to 8 (very fair and almost always de-
served).
Validity of the children's reports about care-
takers' punishment is provided by a random,
stratified subsample of caretakers who responded
to the parent version of the PPQ. The Parent PPQ
and Youth PPQ are nearly identical except that
the youth version says, "My caretaker does . . . "
whereas the parent version says, "I do .... The
level of agreement between caretakers and chil-
dren on each of the four specific punishment
items used here was high. More particularly, 88%
of the caretakers agreed with their children to
within 1 point difference (on a 13-point scale)
about the average weekly incidence of corporal
punishment. That is, the child might have report-
ed being punished once a week, on the average.
Eighty-eight percent of the caretakers either
agreed with this number or said zero times per
week or twice a week. Additionally, 73% of the
caretakers agreed with their children's reports
within 1 point (on a 4-point scale) about the
severity of the punishment. Moreover, 65% of the
caretakers agreed with their children's report
within 1 point (on a 4-point scale) about the over-
all fairness of the punishment. Only 9% of the
caretakers disagreed substantially with their chil-
845
dren's perceptions and said that the punishment
was "very fair" when the children reported it to
be "very unfair." Finally, 41% of the caretakers
agreed with their children within 1 point (on a 4-
point scale) about the relative deservedness of
punishment. Here, the majority (77%) of caretak-
ers reported their punishing behaviors to be "al-
most always" deserved. The majority (71%) of
children, on the other hand, said the punishment
was "sometimes" (57%) or "often" (14%) de-
served, but only 21% said it was "almost always"
deserved. Overall, however, caretakers and chil-
dren agreed in more than 90% of the cases that
the punishment was deserved more often than not.
Additional evidence about the validity and relia-
bility of the Physical Punishment Questionnaire is
provided in Rohner (in press).
Family Information Sheet (FIS). The youth form
of the FIS (Rohner, 1991) elicits information
about the child's age, sex, race, grade in school,
and social class, as well as who the major caretak-
er is and the whereabouts of the child's mother
and father. Moreover, the FIS elicits information
about the child's place of residence, household
size and composition, and other sociodemograph-
ic information.
Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ).
Youths reported on their own psychological ad-
justment by responding to the child version of the
PAQ (Rohner, 1991). Here, youths responded to
42 items addressing seven personality disposi-
tions that are expected theoretically and empiri-
cally to be related to parental acceptance-
rejection. Research reported here incorporates six
of the seven scales. The seventh scale, depen-
dence, is dropped here for reasons discussed in
Rohner (1986). Thus the abbreviated version of
the PAQ used here comprises 36 items divided
into six scales, including hostility-aggression,
self-esteem, self-adequacy, emotional responsive-
ness, emotional stability, and worldview. Exam-
ples of scale items include: "I think about fighting
or being mean" (hostility-aggression); "I like my-
self' (positive self-esteem); "I can compete suc-
cessfully for the things I want" (positive self-
adequacy); "it is easy for me to show my friends
that I really like them" (emotional responsive-
ness); "I am cheerful and happy one minute and
gloomy or unhappy the next" (emotional instabil-
ity); "I think the world is a good, happy place"
(positive worldview). Youths responded to such
items on a 4-point Likert-like scale ranging from
 846
almost always true of me to almost never true of
me.
The PAQ is keyed in such a way that the high-
er the score, the higher the level of psychological
maladjustment. Items are summed to reveal an
overall PAQ score, which can range on the abbre-
viated PAQ from 36 (indicating positive psycho-
logical adjustment) to 144 (indicating negative
psychological adjustment). A score of 90 or more
indicates more self-reported psychological malad-
justment than adjustment.
Because psychological adjustment is the major
outcome variable in this research and because all
the major research instruments used here are self-
reports, it is especially importantto be able to doc-
ument the validity of children's reporting about
their own psychological adjustment using the
PAQ. Here, two external sources of evidence from
foster parents and from a school social worker and
several guidance counselors are particularly ger-
mane. In the first source, Coumoyer (1989) found
in a sample of 50 foster families that the children's
PAQ scores correlatedstrongly (r = .64, p = .0001)
with foster mothers' reports about the children's
behavior and psychological adjustment on the
Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Edel-
brock, 1983). Further evidence of the validity of
children's self-reported psychological adjustment
on the PAQ comes directly from third- through
eighth-grade students in McIntosh County itself.
There, the school social worker and several guid-
ance counselors evaluated each sample child's psy-
chological adjustment on a 4-point scale, from no
discernible psychological problem (0), to mild (1),
moderate (2), and severe (3) problems. One or two
counselors included in their evaluation such pe-
ripherallyrelevant considerations as "dysfunctional
family" and "health problems." Despite these
marginally relevant criteria, the evaluations of the
social worker and counselors correlated signifi-
cantly with the children's overall PAQ scores (r =
.26, p < .001, n = 181). The most common single
form of psychological adjustment problem identi-
fied by the social worker and counselors was
anger-aggression. On the average, youths who
manifested these problems in school (codes 1-3
above) reported themselves to be above the mid-
point on the PAQ's hostility-aggression scale (M =
6.19, SD = 3.82). Scores above the midpoint indi-
cate significant self-reportedproblems with hostili-
ty and aggression. On the other hand, youths who
were reportedby the social worker and counselors
to have no discernible hostility-aggression problem
(code 0 above), self-reported well below this level
Journal of Marriage and the Family
(M = 11.72, SD = 4.03). The difference between
these two groups in mean level of hostility-
aggression is significant, t(168) = 4.43, p < .001),
thus adding confirmatory evidence about the con-
current validity of children's self-reports on the
PAQ. Extensive additional evidence of validity and
reliability reported by Rohner (1991, 1995) con-
firms the psychometric soundness of this measure.
This body of evidence is supported in McIntosh
County where coefficient alpha for the PAQ as an
overall measure of psychological adjustmentis .88.
Alphas for individual scales are: hostility-
aggression, .74; self-adequacy, .55; self-esteem,
.63; emotional responsiveness, .50; emotional
stability, .58, and; worldview, .74.
RESULTS
Table 1 shows that the mean acceptance-rejection
score for children in the county is 66.01 (SD =
18.92). This score demonstrates that most of the
children in the county feel loved and accepted by
their major caretakers. Six percent of the children,
however, scored above the midpoint of 100, re-
vealing that they experience significantly more
rejection than acceptance. The majority of chil-
dren in the county are relatively well adjusted
psychologically, with a mean psychological ad-
justment score of 71.44 (SD = 14.61). Scores
above the midpoint of 90 were reported for 16%
of the children, indicating that these children have
significant self-reported psychological adjustment
problems. As expected from prior studies that ex-
amined parental acceptance-rejection theory
(Rohner, 1986; Rohner & Rohner, 1980), a corre-
lation coefficient of .50 (p < .001) significantly
links psychological adjustment with perceived
parental acceptance-rejection.
Children's perception of caretaker acceptance-
rejection, perceived harshness of punishment, and
perceived justness of punishment, as well as chil-
dren's psychological adjustment, tended not to
vary significantly by age, sex, race, or social
class. The only exceptions to this conclusion were
found in the fact that White youths in the county
(M = 63.15, SD = 15.84) tended to report slightly
more overall caretaker acceptance (t = 2.35, p =
.023) than did Black youths (M = 68.31, SD =
20.94). Similarly, White youths (M = 5.80, SD =
1.71) tended to perceive caretaker punishment to
be slightly more just (t = -4.03, p. = .001) than
did Black youths (M = 4.87, SD = .43). Addition-
ally, the older the children were, the less frequent-
ly and less severely (i.e., the less harshly) they
Perceptions of Corporal Punishment 847

TABLE 1. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS AND INTERCORRELATIONSAMONG MEASURES OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENT,

PERCEIVED CARETAKER ACCEPTANCE-REJECTION, AND YOUTHS' PSYCHOLOGICALADJUSTMENT

Variable M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Punishment
1. Harshness 4.02 2.13
2. Incidence 1.66 1.65 .905**
(171)
3. Severity 2,27 .98 .664*** .282***
(171) (171)
4. Justness 5.30 1.63 -.075 -.073 -.021
(170) (171) (189)
5. Fairness 2.81 1.00 -.132 -.114 -.090 .847***
(170) (171) (186) (186)
6. Deserved 2.49 .95 .013 -.003 .051 .830*** .406***
(170) (171) (185) (186) (186)
7. Acceptance-
rejection 66.01 18.92 .322*** .265*** .268*** -.401*** -.439*** -.246***
(171) (172) (187) (186) (187) (186)
8. Psychological
adjustment 71.44 14.61 .176* .226** .036 -.273*** -.275*** -.183* .501***
(171) (172) (187) (186) (187) (186) (281)
Note: Numbersin parenthesesbeneathcorrelationsare in's.
*p <.05. **p <.01. ***p <.001

tended to be punished (r = -.30, p < .001). Final-
ly, there was a slight but significant tendency for
children from higher social classes to perceive
more caretaker acceptance than children from
lower classes (r = .14, p < .05).
The magnitude of reported racial and social
class differences in perceived caretaker
acceptance-rejection and justness of punish-
ment-though statistically significant-is trivial
from a theoretical and practical point of view.
The reported age differences in perceptions of
harshness of punishment, however, may not be
trivial. A hierarchical regression analysis was run
to assess the possible influence of children's age,
sex, race, and social class on relationships among
perceived harshness and justness of punishment,
perceived caretaker acceptance-rejection, and
children's psychological adjustment. None of
these control variables added significantly to the
prediction of psychological adjustment above and
beyond caretaker acceptance-rejection and per-
ceived harshness and justness of punishment.
Thus, in analyzing further results of this research,
we pooled the sample across age, gender, race,
and social class differences.
Children in McIntosh County reported being
physically punished an average of less than once
a week (M = .76 times per week, SD = 1.49). One
percent of the children, however, reported receiv-
ing physical punishment more than seven times a
week. The average harshness of punishment re-
ported by children in McIntosh county is well
below the midpoint of 9, at 4.02 (SD = 2.13), in-
dicating that these children reported being pun-
ished not very often, and when they were pun-
ished, they experienced the punishment as being
not very hard. On the average (M = 5.30, SD =
1.63), county children felt that physical punish-
ment was not wholly just, but that overall it was
equitable. Forty-two percent of the children in
this sample viewed punishment as clearly more
just than unjust.
Table 1 also provides the intercorrelations
among measures of corporal punishment, per-
ceived caretaker acceptance-rejection, and
youths' psychological adjustment. The table
shows that perceived harshness of physical pun-
ishment is only weakly correlated (r = .18, p <
.05) with psychological adjustment. It is possi-
ble, though, that the Pearson's correlation hides
any curvilinear relationship that may be present.
For example, low levels of perceived harshness
may not impact negatively on children's psycho-
logical adjustment, but when punishment be-
comes increasingly harsh, psychological adjust-
ment may become increasingly impaired. In order
to test this possibility, we ran two multiple regres-
sion analyses. First, psychological adjustment
was regressed onto perceived harshness. Second,
to incorporate curvilinearity into the model, a
 848
squared perceived harshness variable was added.
The addition of the transformed perceived harsh-
ness variable did not significantly improve the
predictability of the model (p = .55). Thus it ap-
pears that the relationship between harshness of
punishment and children's psychological adjust-
ment is not appreciably curvilinear.
Because perceived harshness of punishment
appeared to have only a weak linear and no curvi-
linear relationship with children's psychological
adjustment, another test was carried out to ex-
plore a possible threshold effect, where harshness
of punishment might have no measurable effect
on children's psychological adjustment until it
reaches a specified level. In order to explore this
possibility, we performed a t test contrasting the
mean psychological adjustment scores of children
who experienced harsh versus nonharsh punish-
ment. Results showed that the mean psychologi-
cal adjustment score (M = 72.47, SD = 16.06) of
children who were punished on the average of
less than once a week and who felt the punish-
ment was not hard when it did occur (i.e., non-
harsh punishment) contrasted significantly, t(44)
= 2.50, p = .02, with mean psychological adjust-
ment scores (M = 82.57, SD = 10.72) of children
who were punished on the average of three or
more times a week and who felt the punishment
varied from a little hard to very hard (i.e., harsh
punishment). The mean score for the latter group
was close to the midpoint of 90 on the modified
version of the PAQ, indicating the presence of
significant psychological maladjustment.
Table 1 also reveals that perceived justness of
punishment and psychological adjustment are sig-
nificantly but negatively correlated (r = -.27, p <
.0001). As perceived justness of punishment in-
creases, psychological adjustment also increases.
Moreover, perceived justness of physical punish-
ment is significantly but negatively correlatedwith
perceived caretakerrejection (r = -.40, p < .0001),
revealing that the more just youths perceive pun-
ishment to be, the more accepted they feel.
Both perceived harshness of punishment (r =
.32, p < .001) and perceived justness of punish-
ment (r = -.40, p < .001) are more strongly corre-
lated with children's perceptions of caretaker
acceptance-rejection than with children's psycho-
logical adjustment (r = .18, p < .05; and r = -.27,
p < .001, respectively). These relationships raise
the question of whether perceived harshness and
perceived justness by themselves are directly
related to children's psychological adjustment or
whether the influence of one or both of these vari-
Journal of Marriage and the Family
TABLE 2. INTERCORRELATIONSAMONG LATENT VARIABLES
IN FIGURES 1 AND 2
LatentVariable 1 2 3
1. Harshness
2. Unjustness .16
3. Acceptance-rejection .49 .50
4. Psychological adjustment .26 .26 .53
Note: n = 186.
ables is mediated by perceived caretaker
acceptance-rejection. To explore this question, we
analyzed two structural equation models with la-
tent variables (Bollen, 1989; Hayduk, 1987;
Kenny, 1979; Loehlin, 1992), displayed in
Figures 1 and 2. LISREL VII with the maximum
likelihood fitting function was used (Joreskog &
S6rbom, 1989). All path coefficients are standard-
ized. Latent variables or constructs in Figures 1
and 2 are displayed within the circles, observed
variables are displayed within rectangles, and
measurement errors (6s) are left unenclosed.
Intercorrelations among latent variables are pre-
sented in Table 2.
The first model (Figure 1) explored the direct
impact of perceived harshness and perceived un-
justness of punishment on children's psychologi-
cal adjustment. The model also explored the indi-
rect influence of these variables, mediated by
children's perceptions of caretakers' acceptance-
rejection. We made no assumption about a causal
relationship between perceived harshness and
perceived unjustness of punishment. Therefore,
we merely computed the correlation between
these variables. All loadings in the measurement
model were significant (p < .01). The structural
equation model fit the data well, X2(49, n = 186)
= 51.75, p = .367. Both of the direct paths from
perceived harshness and from perceived unjust-
ness to psychological adjustment were nonsignifi-
cant. The indirect paths from perceived harshness
and perceived unjustness mediated by perceived
acceptance-rejection, however, were significant
(p < .001). From these results, we concluded that,
after controlling for the influence of perceived
acceptance-rejection, perceived harshness and un-
justness of punishment by themselves do not
make significant contributions to variations in
children's psychological adjustment.
Because of these findings, the nonsignificant
direct paths from harshness and justness were re-
moved in Model 2. Deleting the nonsignificant
paths from the model did not substantially change
the fit of the model. A third model then was creat-
ed (Figure 2) with the paths from perceived
Perceptions of Corporal Punishment 849

FIGURE 1. WHOLE MODEL OF RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CORPORAL PUNISHMENT, PERCEIVED ACCEPTANCE-REJECTION,

AND CHILDREN'S PSYCHOLOGICALADJUSTMENT

8 6

.07
.
V

6 .

r
Unfair Undeserved
t t
5 5 2(49, n = 186) = 51.75, p = .37
GFI = .96

Note: n = 186.
**p <.01. ***p <.001.

harshness and perceived unjustness of punish-
ment constrained to be equal. The X2 difference
test between Model 1 and Model 3 was nonsignif-
icant (X2= 1.62, df = 2, ns). Similarly, the differ-
ence between Model 2 and Model 3 was non-
significant (X2= .03, df= 1, ns). This left the final
trimmed model shown in Figure 2, X2(52, n =
186) = 53.67, p = .41. Both perceived harshness
and perceived unjustness contribute to variations
in children's psychological adjustment only when
they are mediated by the child's perceptions of
caretaker acceptance-rejection.
Finally, it is possible that the relationship be-
tween harsh or unjust punishment and children's
psychological adjustment might be contingent on
the child's gender, race, age, or social class. For
example, boys might differ from girls, or younger
children might differ from older children in their
responses to perceptions of harsh or unjust pun-
ishment. In order to examine these possibilities, a
series of multiple regression analyses were run. In
these tests we regressed children's psychological
adjustment onto their perceptions of acceptance-
rejection, punishment (harshness and unjustness),
 850 Journalof Marriageand the Family

FIGURE 2. RELATIONSHIIPSAMONG CARETAKERS' BEHAVIOR AND CHILDREN'S PSYCHOLOGICALADJUSTMENT WITH PATHS

FROM HARSHNESS AND UNJUSTNESS SET TO BE EQUAL

6 5

.42***
V

8
6

.43***

6 6 X2(52, n = 186) = 53.67, p = .41

GFI = .96

Note: n = 186.
**p <.01. ***tp<.001.

and the product variable representing the interac- DISCUSSION

tion term (e.g., gender by harsh punishment).
None of the interactions is significant. That is, the
psychological adjustment of boys does not differ
from that of girls under varying conditions of
harsh or unjust punishment and perceived care-
taker acceptance-rejection. Similarly, relation-
ships among perceived punishment, acceptance-
rejection, and children's psychological adjust-
ment are not contingent on children's age, race, or
social class.
Preliminary analyses revealed that both perceived
harshness and perceived justness of punishment
are more strongly correlated with children's per-
ceptions of caretaker acceptance-rejection than
they are with children's psychological adjust-
ment. Additionally, analyses of two structural
equation models showed that the direct paths
from perceived harshness and perceived justness
to psychological adjustment were nonsignificant,
indicating that these two measures of physical
Perceptions of Corporal Punishment
punishment by themselves are not significantly
related to variations in children's psychological
adjustment. However, the indirect paths from
these two variables, mediated by perceived care-
taker acceptance-rejection, were significant, re-
vealing that these measures of physical punish-
ment are associated with poor psychological ad-
justment when they are seen by children to be a
form of caretaker rejection. These results support
conclusions by Agnew (1983), Baumrind (1994),
Erlanger (1979), and Simons et al. (1994), who
contend that corporal punishment does not neces-
sarily negatively affect children's behavior and
psychological adjustment. These results also sup-
port the work of Rohner et al. (1991), who con-
cluded that the love and acceptance children feel
from their major caregivers is much more strong-
ly related to children's psychological well-being
than is physical punishment per se.
Results from this research do not support con-
clusions by Lefkowitz et al. (1977) and others
who report a curvilinear relationship between
physical punishment and adjustment issues. Re-
gression analyses here revealed that a transformed
perceived harshness variable, thought to capture a
curvilinear relationship, did not significantly im-
prove the predictability of the model. Evidence
provided here does suggest, however, the exis-
tence of a threshold effect where corporal punish-
ment appears to have no measurably negative in-
fluence on children's psychological adjustment
until it reaches a specific magnitude of perceived
harshness or perceived unjustness. More specifi-
cally, children who reported being punished less
than once a week and who perceived this punish-
ment to be not hard also reported significantly
less psychological maladjustment than children
who reported being punished three or more times
a week and who perceived the punishment to be a
little hard or very hard. Children who exceeded
this latter threshold had an average psychological
adjustment score that indicated the presence of
significant psychological maladjustment. Very
high levels of perceived harshness of physical
punishment, therefore, may be directly related to
negative psychological adjustment. Further re-
search is needed to explore this question and the
concept of a threshold effect itself, in association
with perceived caretaker acceptance-rejection.
Finally, results of this research suggest that re-
lationships among perceived harsh and unjust
punishment, perceived caretaker acceptance-
rejection, and children's psychological adjust-
ment are not contingent on children's age, gender,
851
race, or social class. That is, the psychological ad-
justment of younger children does not appear to
be significantly different from that of older chil-
dren under varying levels of harsh or unjust pun-
ishment and caretaker acceptance-rejection. Simi-
larly, the psychological adjustment of boys (vs.
girls), Blacks (vs. Whites), or working-class (vs.
middle-class) children does not appear to be sig-
nificantly different under these conditions.
A word of caution should be introduced at this
point. Specifically, this research is based princi-
pally on children's self-reports. Even though ex-
teral evidence was available to support most of
these reports, it is possible that we might have
reached somewhat different conclusions if other
sources of data had been used. Moreover, even
though the measures of corporal punishment used
here are not directly related to the children's psy-
chological adjustment measured by the PAQ,
other unmeasured indicators of children's adjust-
ment (such as depression, suicidal ideation, with-
drawal, or conduct problems) might be. Unex-
plained variability in the measures of psychologi-
cal adjustment used here suggests that important
but unmeasured factors influence children's psy-
chological adjustment. Further research is war-
ranted to identify these factors (such as the influ-
ence of perceived predictability or unpredictabili-
ty of punishment or the consistency or
inconsistency of punishment). Despite these limi-
tations, however, at least one major conclusion
stands out. The influence of perceived parental
acceptance-rejection should be considered in any
future inquiry into the relationship between chil-
dren's experiences with corporal punishment and
their psychological adjustment.
NOTE
This article is based on field research in McIntosh
County, Georgia, from August, 1993, through January,
1994. The work was funded by a grant to the first au-
thor by the University of Connecticut Research Founda-
tion. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance
of Nancy D. Rohner, who participated in all aspects of
data collection and data reduction and in the prepara-
tion of this article. We also acknowledge the research
assistance of Ms. Johnnie M. Sharpe, who helped so ca-
pably with data collection in her native county. We
thank, too, the McIntosh County Board of Education
and Dr. Hannah Tostensen, superintendent of schools,
for allowing us to work with children in the public
schools. And we express our appreciation to all the
principals, teachers, other school personnel, parents,
and children who gave so graciously of their time and
expertise to help bring this project to completion.
 852
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