Examines the factors associated with physical punishment of young children by their parents. The study surveyed more than 2,000 African American, Asian, Hispanic, and White parents about disciplinary practices, nurturing activities, and symptoms of depression. Key findings revealed that while 40 percent of parents said that they sometimes or often yelled at their child, close to 75 percent reported using more neutral measures such as time out; more than 80 percent of parents said that they played with or hugged their children one or more times a day; and parental ethnicity was only marginally correlated with tendency to spank, with African American parents reporting a slightly higher rate. Findings illuminate the difficulty of developing consistent profiles of parents who strike their children. For example, the two groups of parents who most often spanked represented extremes in terms of income and ethnicity: one had the greatest proportion of low-income parents and the highest proportion of Hispanic and African American parents, and the other had the lowest proportion of low-income parents and was virtually all White. Groups of parents with higher rates of using physical discipline seem more readily defined by parental mood than by race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.
