Corporal punishment and ridicule--residual psychological effects in early adulthood : implications for counselors

Date

1999-05

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Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

Corporal punishment at home has been positively correlated with aggression (Cohen & Brook, 1995; Straus, Sugarman, & Giles-Sims, 1997) and intemalizing disorders (Luby & Morgan, 1997; Tumer & Finkelhor, 1996). Corporal punishment at school has also been positively associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (Hyman, 1990; Krugman & Kingman, 1984). Ridicule was found to be positively related to anti-social behaviors (Egeland & Erickson, 1987) depression (Braver, Bumberry, Green, & Rawson, 1992) and PTSD (Krugman & Krugman, 1984). The preponderance of the literature addressed the association between corporal punishment at home and psychopathology in children.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between corporal punishment experienced in childhood and psychopathology; specifically, anxiety, depression, phobic anxiety, and PTSD evident in adulthood. In addition, positive or negative attitude regarding childhood punishment experiences was examined. Psychopathology was assessed with the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1993) and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (Weiss & Marmar, 1997). Multivariate analysis of variance and t-tests were used to examine the data.

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