Department of Social Work, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Department of Special Education, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300044, Taiwan.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jun 10;18(12):6270. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18126270.
Prior studies on adverse outcomes of parental corporal punishment on children have focused on examining one of two broad domains of parental corporal punishment: parental beliefs or actual use. Recently, researchers have argued that parental belief and actual use of corporal punishment should work jointly to contribute to children's depression and involvement in school violence. Yet, studies supporting this proposition are lacking. This study examined the indirect link from parental attitudes towards corporal punishment to children's depression and school violence involvement through actual use of corporal punishment. Four hundred and thirty-three elementary school students and their parents in Taiwan participated in this study. The results indicate that positive parental attitudes towards corporal punishment do not predict children's depression and involvement in school violence. However, parental attitudes towards corporal punishment had significant indirect relationships with depression and involvement in school violence through the actual use of corporal punishment. These findings applied to both genders. This study supports the proposition that parental attitudes and the actual use of corporal punishment could work together to predict children's depression and school violence. Future intervention programs for decreasing children's depressive symptoms and involvement in school violence might need to tackle corporal punishment in the family.
父母的信念或实际使用。最近，研究人员认为，父母对体罚的信念和实际使用应该共同作用，从而导致儿童抑郁和参与校园暴力。然而，支持这一观点的研究还很缺乏。本研究通过体罚的实际使用，检验了父母体罚态度与儿童抑郁和参与校园暴力之间的间接关系。台湾的 433 名小学生及其家长参与了这项研究。结果表明，父母对体罚的积极态度并不能预测儿童的抑郁和参与校园暴力。然而，父母对体罚的态度通过体罚的实际使用与抑郁和参与校园暴力之间存在显著的间接关系。这些发现适用于两性。本研究支持这样一种观点，即父母的态度和体罚的实际使用可以共同作用，从而预测儿童的抑郁和校园暴力。未来减少儿童抑郁症状和参与校园暴力的干预计划可能需要解决家庭中的体罚问题。
