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Parental Discipline and Abuse Potential Affects on Child Depression, Anxiety, and

AttributionsAuthor(s): Christina M. RodriguezSource: Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Nov., 2003), pp. 809-817Published by: National Council on Family RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3599892 .

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CHRISTINA . RODRIGUEZ University of Utah

ParentalDiscipline ndAbusePotentialAffectson ChildDepression,Anxiety,andAttributions

Thecurrent tudy nvestigated ifferencesn chil-dren's emotionalunctioningas a productof theirparents'reporteddisciplinary racticesand childabusepotential.Families with no knownhistoryof abuse were recruited o ascertainwhetherde-pressogenicattributionaltyle and depressiveoranxioussymptomatology as evident n childrenof parentswho used harsherphysicalpunishmentand who had higher abusepotential.Forty-twoNew Zealand children ages 8-12 participatedwith theirparents. Child-reportmeasuresof de-pression, anxiety, and attributionalstyle werecomparedwith parents' responses on physicaldiscipline scenarios and child abuse potential.Children's nxiety ymptomswerehigher n thosechildrenwhoseparentsobtainedhigherabusepo-tentialscoresand had harsherdisciplinepractic-es. Children'sdepressive symptomsand somecomponentsof maladaptiveattributionalstylewere alsofoundinfamilieswithhigherabusepo-tential.Resultssuggestemotionaldifficulties im-ilar to those of maltreated hildreneven withoutidentifiable buse.Since the recognition n 1962 of the seriousnessof child physical abuse (Kempe, Silverman,Steele,Droegemueller,& Silver,1962),child mal-

treatmenthas received heightened media andscholarlyattention.Abuse estimates soared fol-lowing the implementationf mandatory eport-ing lawsin theUnitedStatesduring he 1960s and1970s (cf. Lindsey,1994).Moreover, nonymoussurveysdemonstratehe virtuallyuniversalprac-tice of parental hysicaldisciplineof childrenandeven more severeparent-childiolence.The mediatypically spotlight he most brutaland fatalinstancesof childabuse,neglecting hatmost cases of maltreatmentmergefrom the rou-tine practice of physical discipline strategies.Physicalabuse often results from an unintendedescalationwhile administeringphysical punish-ment for perceivedchild transgressionsHerren-kohl, Herrenkohl,& Egolf, 1983), and maltreat-ment is often conceptualized s on a continuumwithphysicaldiscipline Rodriguez& Sutherland,1999;Whipple& Richey, 1997).Althoughphys-ical disciplineand child abuse can be consideredvariantsof parentalaggression,abusive behavioris generallydeemedunacceptable,whereaspublicopinionregarding orporalpunishments clearlydivided.Thisdebateover the usefulnessof phys-ical punishment as persisted or generationsde-spite support rom experts (e.g., Straus, 2001a,2001b)regardingheneedto discontinue ll formsof familyviolence.In lightof calls to end all le-galizedformsof corporal unishmentoward hil-dren (e.g., Hammarberg& Newell, 2002), re-searchersmust address this controversyoverphysical punishmentby compiling furtherevi-dence regardingthe immediateand long-termfunctioningof childrenreceiving any physical

Universityof Utah,Department f EducationalPsychology,1705 East Campus Center Drive, Room 327, Salt LakeCity, UT 84112-9255 ([email protected]).Key Words: child anxiety, child attributionalstyle, childdepression,childmaltreatment, orporalpunishment,phys-ical discipline.

Journal f Marriage ndFamily65 (November2003): 809-817 809


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810 Journal of Marriage and Family

punishment.The risk factorsareconsidered im-ilar for both child physical abuse and physicalpunishmentStraus,1983).Consequently,t is im-portanto ascertainwhether heeffects of physicalabuse andphysicaldisciplineoverlap.To date,the evidence indicates hatchildmal-treatments characterized s detrimentalo vic-tims, resulting n both short-term nd long-termsequelaein psychosocialand cognitivefunction-ing (e.g., Fantazzo, 1990;Starr& Wolfe, 1991).Thus physicallyabusedchildrenare morelikelythan nonabusedchildren to demonstratesuchcharacteristics s oppositionality, ehaviorprob-lems, depression, earfulness,social withdrawal,and lower self-esteem.Forexample,abusedchil-drenwere found o be more ikelyto displayhigh-er levels of depressive ymptomatologyndhope-lessnessas well as lower evelsof self-esteem hancomparisongroups (Kazdin,Moser, Colbus, &Bell, 1985). Anotherstudy confirmed ncreaseddepression and hopelessness in children withabuse historiesas well as a tendencytowardanexternal locus of control (Allen & Tarnowski,1989). Moreover,a moremaladaptive, epresso-genic attributionaltyle was reportedor abusedchildren(Cerezo& Frias, 1994). Thus childrenwho are victims of abusedisplay many signs re-flective of internalizing isorders.Some indicationsin the research,however,pointto negativeoutcomesensuing romcorporalpunishmentn the absenceof parentalbehaviorsinjurious nough o qualifyas abusive e.g.,Straus& Kantor, 994).Childmaltreatmentesearch asoften relied on researchdesignsthatassess chil-dren after the fact whenconfirmedabuse has al-readyoccurred.Retrospective esearch trategies,however,aretypicallysubject o recallbiasesanderrors. It remains unclearwhetherproblematicsymptomsmanifested n some abusedchildren c-tually appear n nonclinicalsamplesof childrenwho have received ess seriousforms of parentalaggression,such as physical punishment.Theo-retically,some of the emotionaland behavioraldifficulties associatedwith physicalchild abusemay developprimarilyas a function of parents'harsherdisciplinary tylesand attitudes.Thusthedifficulties xperienced y childrenmaydifferde-pendingon whether heygrowup with morever-sus less physicaldiscipline.

Researchhas indeedsupported relationshipbetweenchildhoodhistoryof harshdisciplineandadultpsychopathologyHolmes& Robins,1988),althoughby usingretrospectiveesearchdesigns.Another tudydemonstratedhatthe moresevere

the disciplineexperiencedby the child, the moreaggressively he child behaves(i.e., externalizingbehaviorproblems;Weiss,Dodge,Bates,&Pettit,1992), although hese researchers id not find arelationship etweenphysicaldisciplineand nter-nalizingbehaviorproblems.Anotherstudy sup-porteddisciplineas a significantpredictor f be-havior problemsin children (Brenner& Fox,1998). One dissertation ndicatedhigher depres-sion andanxietysymptomsor those children at-egorized n high discipline iskgroups Dingwall,1997).Yetnoticeablymoreresearch, s well as publicdiscussion,has centeredon the influenceof phys-ical discipline eadingto aggressiveand external-izing behaviorproblemsvia social learning.Thepreponderancef researchiterature ies corporalpunishmento aggressivebehavior(e.g., Straus,2001b), whereas he associationof physicalpun-ishmentwith internalizing roblems emains essapparentn the literature. lthoughheconnectionbetween physical discipline and aggressionisclearlymeaningfulo bothfamilyandsociety,re-searchcontinues o overlook ts associationwiththe emotional ife of the child. Anecdotally,wehear of children's ubjective eportsof distressatphysicaldiscipline e.g., Willow& Hyder,1998),althoughactual empiricalresearch nvestigatingthe child's internalexperienceof discipline islacking.Whereasboth child and adolescentboys re-portedly demonstratemore disruptivebehaviorandexternalizing ifficulties omparedwithgirls(e.g., Crijnen,Achenbach,& Verhulst, 997),sev-eral studiesof prepubertalhildrenhave not de-tected genderdifferences n depressionor attri-butional style (e.g., Joiner & Wagner, 1995;Thompson,Kaslow, Weiss, & Nolen-Hoeksema,1998). Indeed,an interestingine of inquiryhasbegunto investigate heemergenceof genderdif-ferences n depression ndanxietyduringadoles-cence (Hayward& Sanborn,2002). Thus,com-paring he internalizing rocessesfor prepubertalboysandgirlsgrowingupwithharshphysicaldis-ciplinarianswouldbe meaningful.Some components f the internalizing omainmirroring hose drawn from the child maltreat-ment iteratureincludingdepression, nxiety,andattributionaltyle) may be particularlymportantto investigate n childrenreceivingphysicalpun-ishment. Althoughsome researchhas includedsymptomsof depressionand anxiety, depresso-genic attributionaltyle-a riskfactor ordepres-sion as conceptualizedby Abramsonand col-


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Parental Discipline and Child Functioning 811leagues (Abramson,Metalsky,& Alloy, 1989;Abramson,Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978)-hasbeenrelativelyneglected n research n thephys-ical disciplineof children.Maladaptiveattribu-tions, as delineated n the learnedhelplessnessmodel of depression, ouldpotentiallydevelop nresponse to uncontrollablephysical discipline,which may in turn ead to depressiveor anxioussymptomatologyn children.Further,f particularinterest n the current tudy was the elementofinternalocus of control,giventhatfindingsn themaltreatmentiteratureAllen&Tarnowski, 989)suggestthatphysicaldiscipline s likelyto be per-ceived as outsideof the child'scontrol.In addi-tion, researchon attributionaltyle has concen-tratedon children'sexplanationof both positiveand negativeevents in their lives, with supportacrosssamples hatboth arerelevant o children'sdepression Gladstone& Kaslow, 1996;Joiner&Wagner,1995;Thompsonet al., 1998). Both arerelevantas well in maltreated hildren Kress&Vandenberg, 998;Runyon& Kenny,2002).The currentstudy investigated everalsymp-toms linked to internalizing imensions n an at-temptto determinewhethera nonclinical ampleof childrenreceivingphysical disciplinedemon-stratesdifficulties ypicallyassociatedwith childabuse victims. Childrenwhoseparentshold morephysicallyabusiveattitudes ndthose whoengagein harsherdisciplinewere comparedwith lowerriskparents.Familieswith no establishedhistoryof abuse were selected n order o assesswhetherincreaseddepressiveor anxioussymptomatologywas detected in childrenwhose parentshad aharsherdiscipline style and abusive attitudes.Moreover,o examinehowdisciplineattitudes ndpractices may relate to how children explainevents in their own lives, children'sattributionalstyle was also examined,specifically heirexpla-nationsfor both positive and negativeevents aswell as how theyinternalize esponsibility,hat s,locus of control.

METHODParticipants

Forty-two hildrenand theirparentswererecruit-ed fromschools n Dunedin,New Zealand,aspartof a largerstudyof parentsnot identifiedas abu-sive (see Rodriguez& Sutherland, 999);the fo-cus was on disciplinebeliefs and abusepotential.Two randomly elected schools in Dunedinwereapproached,with one classroomper appropriate

TABLE 1. DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THESAMPLE N = 42)Characteristics % or M n or SDParentgenderMothers 93% 39Fathers 7% 3Parentage 38.67 5.43Child genderGirls 33% 14

Boys 67% 28Child age 10 years, 1 year,11 months 3 monthsEthnicityPakeha 88.1% 37

Maori 2.4% 1Other 9.5% 4Partnered

Yes 76% 32No 24% 10No. of children in home 2.81 1.06Annualfamily income ($)

45,000 32% 13

grade evelreceivingconsent orms.Caregiversnthis largerstudywereparentswho returned on-sent formssent homefrom heirchild'sclassroom,with about half of all distributedorms returnedto the school.All families n the larger tudywitha child between he agesof 8 and12 were nvitedto participaten the current tudy. Nearlyeverychild in the definedage rangewas available orparticipationt the timeof his or herparents'par-ticipation.Sampledemographics ppear n Table1, with thesample nvolvingpredominantly oth-ers of Pakeha(New Zealanders f Europeande-scent)children.Approximatelyne fourthof thechildren n thesamplewerelivingin single-parenthomes (parentswithouta partner).The obtainedsample is comparable o the ethnic distributionand family composition expected for Dunedin,and the annualfamily income, in New Zealanddollars,is comparablewith the national ncomedistributioneportedby the New ZealandCensus(Departmentf StatisticsNew Zealand,1992).ParentMeasures

The Child Abuse Potential Inventory(Milner,1986)is a 160-itemself-reportmeasurenvolving


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812 Journal of Marriage and Familyattitudesandbeliefs believed to be predictiveofphysicalchild abuse potential.One of the mostfrequentlyused measures o screenfor physicalabuse, the Child Abuse PotentialInventoryas-sesses parentalcharacteristicsassociated withphysicallyabusiveparents,although he measuredoes not tap their specific behavioralresponseswhile deliveringdiscipline.Each item presentsastatementwith whichsubjects ndicateagreementor disagreement.Of theseitems,77 contributeothe abuse scale scoreand its six factors,andtheremainingtems serve eitheras distractors/fillersor providea meansof detectingdistortion iases.Withrespectto internal onsistencyof the ChildAbuse Potential nventory, orrected plit-half e-liabilitywas reported s .96, andKuder-Richard-son reliability coefficient was reportedas .92(Milner).Retestreliabilities anged rom.91 afterI dayto .75 after3 months Milner).As a screen-ing tool for abusivebehavior, tudieshave sug-gested a correctclassificationrate of 89.2%ofconfirmed hild abusers nd96.3%of control ub-jects (Milner,Gold,& Wimberley,1986).Discipline Scenarios. To supplement he ChildAbuse Potential nventorywith a measure pecif-ically gearedtowarddisciplinebehavior,parentsalsoread12briefscenariosdepictingphysicaldis-ciplineof a youngchild 8 yearsor younger.Sce-nariosweredeveloped or another tudy seeRod-riguez& Sutherland, 999),basedon consultationwith New Zealand hildprotective erviceswork-ers, and were designedto vary in termsof threespecifiedseverity levels of discipline,with twopunishmentechniques t eachlevel:mild(slaponhand,poking hechild);moderatespanking, ull-ing the childup by the arm);andborderline bu-sive (hittingwithanobjectsuch as a beltorwood-en spoon).The finalcategory,borderline busive,reflecteda severity evel withperceived mbiguityfor parentsaboutwhether he behaviorwould beabusive althoughchild welfare indicated thesewouldprobablywarranturthernvestigation. ce-narioswere intentionally reatedto portraydis-cipline techniquesthat would not be obviouslyabusive,whichseveralearlier eports aveutilized(e.g., Muller,Caldwell,& Hunter,1993),becausenearlyall respondentswouldconsiderextremevi-olence (e.g., burning) nappropriate,herebyre-ducing variabilityand increasingsocially desir-able responses.In addition,half of the scenariosdepictedthe childrenas misbehaving i.e., per-ceived culpability), uch as punchinga sick sib-ling, whereas heothersix scenariosportrayedhe

child as blameless (e.g., accidentallydroppingtoys in a newly cleanedarea).When childrenareconsideredo be misbehaving, heyaremore ike-ly to be blamedfor disciplinedecisions(Mulleret al.). Scenarioswerepurposely onstructedo begender-neutral ith regard o both the child andadult n the scenario,as this factorcan effectrat-ings (e.g., Herzberger&Tennen,1985).Twosam-ple scenariosareas follows:* Borderline abusive/nonculpable:A child ishelpinga parentwash dishes.While the childis dryingoneof the nicechinaplates, hesoapydish slips andfalls, breakingon the floor.Theparentstrikesthe child several times on theback and buttockswitha belt, sayingthechildshouldbe more careful.* Mild/culpable:A parent s watching elevisionand the kids are bickeringon a nearbysofa.Havingalreadyasked hemto stopfighting, heparentturns aroundand slaps the children'sknees,tellingthem to stopfighting.

Parentswereasked to rateeach scenarioon a7-pointLikertscale, reporting n how frequentlytheyuse similarphysicalpunishmentn theirownchildren Practices),from I (notat all) to 7 (of-ten).To generatea total score acrossthe 12 sce-narios, subscoreson each of the three levels(based on the four scenariosper level) wereweighted paralleling he 7-point severity level;mild scenarioswereweighted1,moderate cenar-ios weighted4, and borderlineabusivescenariosweighted7. In this manner, igher otalscoresonpracticesrepresentmoreseveredisciplinebehav-ior.

ChildMeasuresThe Children'sAttributional tyleQuestionnaire(Kaslow,Tannenbaum, Seligman,1978;Selig-manet al., 1984)is a 48-itemforced-choicemea-suredesigned o assess attributionaltyle in chil-dren ages 8 to 18 years.Children elect one oftwo optionsthatbestexplainswhy a hypotheticalsituation n each item would have happened othem.The hypothetical ituationsvary alongthethreeattributional imensionsof internality, ta-bility,andglobality,with half of theitems nvolv-ing negativeoutcomesandhalfpositiveoutcomes.For example, there are eight internal-positiveitemsandeight nternal-negativetems.Thismea-sureyieldsdimensionalcoresacrosspositiveandnegativeevents (InternalTotal,StableTotal,and


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Parental Discipline and Child Functioning 813GlobalTotal);a score across all positive eventsfor a Positive Total;a score acrossall negativeevents for a Negative Total;as well as a TotalComposite score calculatedby subtracting heNegativeTotal corefrom he PositiveTotal core.Lower Positive Total scoresandhigherNegativeTotal scores correspondo moremaladaptive t-tributionaltyles;lower InternalTotalscores cor-respond o externalizingocusof control.The Pos-itive and Negative totals indicate attributionsdependingon the valenceof the situation.For thepresentstudy,the Children'sAttributional tylePositiveTotalandNegativeTotalscoreswereex-amined,along with the more specific index forlocus of control,InternalTotal.With respect to psychometriccharacteristics,moderate nternalconsistencyhas been reportedfor the Children'sAttributional tyle Question-naire TotalComposite,PositiveTotal,andNega-tive Total scores (.73, .71, and .66, respectively;Seligmanet al., 1984).Temporal tabilityover 6monthsranges rom .71 for the PositiveTotaland.80 for the NegativeTotal(Seligmanet al.). TheTotalComposite,PositiveTotal,andNegativeTo-tal has been correlatedwith indicesof depression(e.g., Thompson t al., 1998),consistentwiththelearnedhelplessnessmodel.The Children'sDepression nventoryKovacs,1983, 1985) is a 27-itemself-reportmeasure, hemost widely used instrument augingchildhooddepressive ymptoms,andis suitable or childrenages 8-17 years.Eachitem presents hree state-mentsrepresentingradedevelsof depressive e-verity,valued rom0 to 2. Higher otal scoresareindicativeof more severe depressivesymptom-atology. Kazdin (1990) reportedthat the Chil-dren'sDepression nventoryhasmoderateest-re-test stability, high internal consistency, andconcurrentvalidity with other depressionmea-sures.Highcoefficientalphashave beenreportedfor both childrenand adolescents,rangingfrom.83 to .94 (Saylor,Finch,Spirito,&Bennett,1984;Smucker,Craighead,Craighead,& Green,1986).The Children'sManifestAnxietyScale-Re-vised (Reynolds& Richmond,1978, 1985) is a37-itemself-reportmeasureof anxietysymptomsfor childrenages 6-19 years. Each item is pre-sentedin a yes/no format.The totalscore,indic-ative of the overallanxietylevel, is converted oa standardizedT-scorethat adjustsfor age andgenderdifferences.Nine items contribute o theLie scale,designed o detectsocialdesirabilitye-sponses.TheChildren'sManifestAnxietyScale--Revised total score correlatesmore highly with

internalizinghanexternalizing ehaviors,anditsinternal onsistency s reported t .82 (Reynolds,1982;Reynolds& Richmond,1985).Procedure

A convenient time for a session in the child'shome was arranged y telephoneupon receiptofa consentform. For parents, nstructions ndin-dividual tems for both the ChildAbuse PotentialInventoryand the Practicesmeasure were pre-sentedon a computercreen,with the 12 scenariosappearingn randomorder.Parents nteredall re-sponsesto questionsanonymously, nd to furtherfacilitateprivacy, heirresponsesdid not appearon thecomputer creenas theyentered hem.Thecomputerized rocedureswereimplementedn or-der to maximizeparticipants'eportingaccuracyand to minimize social desirabilityresponding.While parentscompleted their portion of thestudy,childrenwere taken o a quietplacein theirhome to completethe measures.The threeques-tionnaireswereadministeredn a counterbalancedorder. temswere read aloud to the childrespon-dentswhile they readalong and wrote theiran-swers privatelyon a separate orm. After com-pletingthe forms,the childrenwere given eithera $2 video rentalcoupon or a $2 video gamevoucheras a tokenof appreciationor theirpar-ticipation.

RESULTSAll analyseswereconductedusingthe SPSS 11.0for Windowsstatisticalpackage.Meansand stan-darddeviationswerecalculatedor the totalscoresof the parentreportmeasures ChildAbuse Po-tentialInventoryand the Practicesmeasure),aswell as the child questionnairesChildren'sDe-pressionInventory,Children'sManifestAnxietyScale-Revised and Children'sAttributionaltyleQuestionnaire). ll obtainedmean scoreson thesemeasureswerewithinnormal imits(see Table2).An examination f demographicifferences nthe childreportmeasuresndicatedno significantgenderdifferenceson any of the threequestion-naires(all p > .05). Similarly,no significantas-sociationswere found betweenany of the threechildreportmeasuresandchildage (all r > .05).Insufficient ariabilityby ethnicitydid not allowanalysesfor this variable.Consequently,he fullsample was utilized withoutany covariatesre-quired n order o examinedifferencesn parentalgroupdisciplineattitudes ndpractices.


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814 Journal of Marriage and FamilyTABLE 2. MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS FOR TOTAL SAMPLE AND BY GROUPS AND GROUP DIFFERENCES ON

CHILD REPORT MEASURES (N = 42)Total Sample High CAPI Low CAPI High Practices Low PracticesM (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD)CDI total 9.29 (6.50) 11.86 (6.03) 6.71 (6.03)** 11.38 (7.76) 7.19 (4.14)*CMAS-R total 50.00 (11.14) 55.24 (8.93) 44.76 (10.81)*** 54.05 (11.83) 45.95 (8.94)**

CASQ Negative total 4.57 (4.49) 8.29 (2.87) 7.71 (2.70) 8.05 (2.60) 7.95 (2.99)Positive total 12.69 (3.29) 11.76 (3.24) 13.62 (3.15) 12.38 (2.60) 13.00 (3.91)Internal otal 7.98 (1.94) 7.29 (1.42) 8.67 (2.17)** 7.90 (1.55) 8.05 (2.31)CAPI Abuse scale 100.38 (89.67)Discipline practicesi 67.22 (21.17)

Note: CAPI = Child Abuse PotentialInventory;CDI = Children'sDepressionInventory;CMAS-R = Children'sManifestAnxiety Scale-Revised; CASQ = Children'sAttributionalStyle Questionnaire.aMeanscore based on weighted sum across 12 scenarios.*p?-.05. **'p- .01. ***p .05).Parentswere then also dividedby median plitscores on their discipline scenarios practicesscores,whichrepresents behavioralndication factualdisciplinepractices.HighPractices corerswere those who engaged in harsherdisciplinepractices omparedwithparentsn the LowPrac-tices group.A MANOVAexaminingdifferencesbetweenthese two groupsof parentsacrossthesix dependentvariableswas significant,F(5, 36)= 517.0,p - .001.A closerexaminationf which

variables were significantly different betweenHigh Practicesand Low Practicesgroupsdid notfindany significant ifferencesdueto attributionalstyle scores(allp > .05). Analyses ndicated ig-nificant differencesbetween the two practicesgroups, however, on children's anxiety totalscores, F(1, 40) = 6.26, p < .01, and on chil-dren'sdepressionotalscores,F(1, 40) = 4.76,p? .05.DIscussION

The current tudyexaminedwhetherparentswithmorephysicallyabusiveattitudes ndharsher is-cipline practiceshadchildrenwith moresignsofinternalizing ymptomshanchildren f lowerriskparents.Forty-two arent-child yads roma NewZealand ampleof childrenwere assessed n theirhomes.A nonclinical amplewastargetednorderto determinewhetherdifferencesn childhoodde-pression,anxiety,andattributionaltyle wouldbeevident n families with no establishedhistoryofmaltreatment. urrent indingssuggest some in-terestingdifferences n childrenof parentswhousemoreseverephysicaldisciplineandholdmoreattitudes upportive f physicalabuse.Most consistencywas foundin the resultsonchildren's elf-reported nxiety.Childrenof par-ents with morephysicallyabusiveattitudesandbeliefs,as measuredby theChildAbusePotentialInventory, eportedmore anxioussymptomatolo-gy thanchildrenwithparentswhohadlow scoreson theChildAbusePotential nventory. imilarly,childrenof parentsusingless severephysicaldis-cipline techniques eportedoweranxiety handidchildrenof harsherdisciplinarians. imilarfind-ings of higheranxietyin childrenwere obtained


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Parental Discipline and Child Functioning 815

fromhigh disciplineparentgroups n previousre-search (Dingwall, 1997). Therefore, he currentfindingsprovideevidence thatchildrengrowingup in families with more severe discipline mayexperiencemoreanxietysymptoms.Similarly, parentswho held more physicallyabusiveattitudes lsohadchildrenwho weremorelikelyto reportdepressive ymptomshanchildrenof parentswithlow childabusepotential.Consis-tentwith thisfinding,parentswhowerepracticingmoreharshdisciplinealsohad childrenwithhigh-er depressionscores. Such resultsparallelthoseencounteredn the maltreatmentiterature e.g.,Kazdinet al., 1985), suggesting hat childrenev-idence signs of depressionand anxiety,both in-ternalizingdifficulties,even whenphysicalabusehasnot beenidentified.With respect to depressogenicattributionalstyle, which is theorizedas a potential isk factorfor depression, he findingswere morecomplex.No differences mergedon children's ttributionalstyle basedon theirparents'classification n se-verityof parentalpracticeof discipline.Childrendidappearo externalize-thatis, feel less in con-trol-if they weregrowingup with a parentwhohad more physicallyabusiveattitudes.Althoughnot statisticallysignificant,an interesting rendwas observed: he high riskparentshadchildrenwith more maladaptiveattributions, articularlyfor positive events. Althoughattributionaltylefor both positive and negativeevents has beenshown to relate to children'sdepression(e.g.,Joiner& Wagner,1995;Thompsonet al., 1998),in the current tudythe maladaptive ttributionaltendencytowardnegativeevents did not appearrelevant.Thepresent indings upporthoseof anearlier tudy nvolvingabusedchildren,ndicatingthat these childrenexhibit an external ocus ofcontrol (Allen & Tarnowski,1989). Moreover,suchan external ocusof controlcouldcontributeto a sense of powerlessnessand hopelessness(Abramson t al., 1989).Results romthecurrentstudysuggestthatwhenfacedwith uncontrollablephysicaldiscipline,childrenmay be inclinedtodevelopmaladaptivexplanatoryognitions.Giv-en the mixedresultson attributionaltyle,furtherinvestigation f the characteristicsf locusof con-trol andwhatexplanatory pproachs relevantorchildrenreceivingphysicalpunishmentwouldbeintriguing.The presentfindingsreflectsome differencesin resultsbetweenparentalattitudesandparentalpractices,consistentwiththe truism hatattitudesarenotnecessarily epresentativef actualbehav-

ior.Consequently,utureresearchdesignsshouldincorporatemultiple approaches, xaminingpar-ents' disciplinarybehavioras well as theirphilo-sophical approach.For example, perhapsdiffer-ences in child depressionbased on the parent'sChildAbuse Potential nventory coreimplythatchildrenare more depressed n the contextof alargerbeliefsystemadoptedby theirparents, ath-er thanthat theirdepressions related o the par-ents' concretebehaviors.Unfortunately,uchnu-ances can only be evaluatedif future studiesemploy comprehensiveassessments of parents'disciplineapproaches.Futureresearchshouldalso addresssome ofthe limitationsof the currentstudy,and shouldespecially nvolve a larger,moregender-balancedsampleto confirm he absenceof genderdiffer-ences in internalizing rocesses,as foundin thecurrent tudyas well as in earlierresearch e.g.,Thompsonet al., 1998). The currentvolunteersample likely representshe most internallymo-tivated amilies,and thusmoreheterogenous, o-tentiallyexternallymotivated, amplesshouldbesought.Moreover,becausethese measuresweredesigned for North American use, this workshouldbe replicatedwith a U.S. sample,as theremaybe limitations n the use of suchmeasuresna non-U.S.sample(Rodriguez& Pehi, 1998).The presentsample intentionally nvolved agroupof families not identifiedas abusive.An-otherresearchstep could comparechildrenwhohaveneverbeenidentified s abusedwithchildrenfor whomabuse has been substantiated. sing asuitablecomparisonsample and controlling ordemographicariables, esearchersouldexaminewhether hesechildrendifferwithregard o inter-nalizingproblems. deally,two sourcesof infor-mationwouldagainbe utilized,separatinghein-dices of childinternalizing ifficulties rom thoseassessingparentdiscipline, n orderto minimizesourcebias.

Finally,the current tudy is limitedby diffi-cultiesintrinsic o its researchdesign.Decadesofresearch n theassociationbetweencorporal un-ishmentandaggressionhavesuffered romsimilardrawbacksusing cross-sectional amples(Straus,2001b). Althoughsome internalizingdifficultiesweredetectednthoseusingharsher arenting is-ciplinepractices n the current esearch,t is the-oretically possible that parents respond moreharshlyas a consequenceof theirchildren'sex-hibiting internalizingproblems,or as a conse-quenceof some other,unidentified ariable.Astheinvestigation f internalizing rocesses n chil-


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816 Journal of Marriage and Family

drenexperiencingcorporalpunishmentmatures,futureresearch houldincorporate longitudinaldesign, assessingchangesin emotional unction-ing of childrenover time, as well as changesinparentaldiscipline n response o child behavior.Obviously,such designs are burdensome or anumberof reasons,althoughultimatelysuch anavenue could respond o the realitiesof how pa-rentalphysicaldisciplineevolves.Nonetheless,the resultsof the present studyprovide preliminary indications that parents'physical punishment elatesto some aspectsof achild'semotionalwell-beingeven without denti-fiedphysicalabuse.Hencethecurrentindings x-tendtheresearch n corporalpunishmentntotherealmof internalizing ifficultiesbeyondwhathasalreadybeen implicated or children earning obecome violent adults.Longitudinal esearch nthe futuremay reveal that nonabusivephysicaldisciplinemay adversely nfluence he short-andlong-termemotional unctioningof children; o-phisticatedresearchmay even pinpointwhichsymptomsof psychopathology ppearonly in re-sponseto physicalchild abuse incidents.Contin-uedresearch n parents'useof physicaldisciplinehas implicationsor moreserious ormsof familyviolence,given thatcorporalpunishments oftena precursororchildabuse.Futureworkclarifyingthese issues would provide guidanceto profes-sionals and parentsalike as we continuethe de-bate over the use of corporalpunishmentn thehome.

NOTEThanks are extended to the Otago Children and YoungPersons Service of Dunedin, New Zealand, for their in-valuable assistance in constructing the scenarios used inthis study.

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