Maternal use of corporal punishment and behavior problems in early childhood: A sibling comparison analysis

Previous research demonstrates that there are environmental and genetic factors associated with the use of corporal punishment (CP) and children's behavior problems. Thus, it is difficult to disentangle whether CP has a causal effect on children's developmental outcomes.

This study explored the relationship between maternal use of CP at ages 3-4 years and symptoms of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems between the ages of 6 and 9 years using a sibling comparison design. In doing so, we were able to control for shared environmental factors and partially control for genetic factors that could explain the relationship between CP and behavior problems.

This study analyzed data from 11,506 children from the United States. We used generalized linear models to assess the relationship between the use of CP and behavior problems among biological siblings raised in the same home.

At the population level, CP was significantly associated with the development of internalizing behavior problems (β = 0.134, SE = 0.03, p < .001). When comparing siblings, this relationship was no longer significant. In contrast, CP was significantly associated with externalizing behavior problems at both the population (β = 0.233, SE = 0.02, p < .001) and sibling comparison level (β = 0.107, SE = 0.03, p < .001).

We did not find evidence to suggest that the association between CP and externalizing behavior problems is due to environmental and genetic factors exclusively. Corroborating previous research, these results suggest that CP may increase the likelihood of externalizing behavior problems.