Discipline With Love: Ethnic Differences in the Prevalence of Corporal Punishment, Parental Love and Their Effect on Juvenile Delinquency

Theorists have proposed a causal link between corporal punishment and child aggression. Unfortunately most of this research does not include control variables for parental connectedness, which may exacerbate or buffer the effects of corporal punishment. Further, a recent debate in the literature on the role of corporal punishment in different cultural contexts and its effects on the outcome of children's development raises the question of whether these findings are appropriate for populations other than western and middle-class. Methodological limitations of most previous research narrow down the scope in understanding how the experience of corporal punishment relates to adjustment and whether the effects of corporal punishment differ across ethnic groups. Data analysed was from a sample of 477 Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch boys. The results of this study show that corporal punishment is associated positively with violent delinquency for both Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch boys. For Moroccan-Dutch boys, parental connectedness when added to the analysis contributed significantly to the variance on violent delinquency, with maternal connectedness being moderately significant for violent delinquency. However, the addition of emotional warmth for both father and mother for Dutch boys was non-significant. The results suggest that it is important to explore the link between corporal punishment and delinquency within the context of the parent-son relationship. In addition, this study identifies the need to further look at the cultural contexts in which corporal punishment occurs.