Corporal Punishment of Children in Nine Countries as a Function of Child Gender and Parent Gender

Table 4

Means (standard deviations) for children’s reports of the frequency of their parents’ corporal punishment use in the last year.

	Spank, slap, or hit						Grab or shake
	Mother	Father	Parent gender 𝐹	Daughter	Son	Child gender 𝐹	Mother	Father	Parent gender 𝐹	Daughter	Son	Child gender 𝐹
China	1.56 (.94)	1.62 (.93)	.75	1.51 (.73)	1.68 (.86)	2.64	1.18 (.62)	1.26 (.64)	6.39^∗	1.16 (.48)	1.27 (.56)	2.58
Colombia	1.92 (1.20)	1.72 (1.11)	2.84	1.83 (.98)	1.80 (1.10)	.02	1.26 (.75)	1.21 (.61)	.32	1.28 (.65)	1.18 (.54)	.82
Italy	2.13 (1.38)	1.96 (1.23)	4.35^∗	2.03 (1.19)	2.06 (1.16)	.35	1.55 (1.12)	1.58 (1.13)	.18	1.48 (.91)	1.65 (1.16)	1.27
Jordan	2.64 (1.23)	2.21 (1.13)	16.20^∗	2.38 (1.08)	2.48 (.99)	.32	2.18 (1.41)	2.08 (1.24)	1.04	1.92 (1.20)	2.34 (1.20)	2.91
Kenya	3.64 (.91)	3.06 (1.05)	23.78^∗	3.29 (.79)	3.45 (.86)	.93	1.50 (.97)	1.33 (.67)	4.14^∗	1.32 (.58)	1.56 (.84)	2.93
Philippines	2.26 (1.32)	2.23 (1.36)	.08	2.15 (1.26)	2.39 (1.24)	1.28	1.76 (1.22)	1.65 (1.14)	3.76	1.65 (1.18)	1.75 (1.06)	.92
Sweden	1.10 (.53)	1.14 (.57)	3.49	1.15 (.54)	1.06 (.29)	1.18	1.49 (.97)	1.61 (1.11)	5.86^∗	1.29 (.68)	1.77 (1.15)	5.27^∗
Thailand	1.84 (1.20)	1.90 (1.28)	.22	1.86 (1.22)	1.87 (1.06)	.00	1.46 (1.02)	1.36 (.93)	1.50	1.39 (.85)	1.43 (.89)	.05
U.S.A.	1.89 (1.21)	1.71 (1.09)	3.68	1.81 (1.11)	1.86 (1.09)	.53	1.47 (1.01)	1.41 (.91)	.10	1.40 (.87)	1.52 (.97)	4.81^∗

^∗𝑃<.05.
Note. Values are means, standard deviations, and F-tests from repeated measures analyses of variance with parent gender as the within-subjects factor and child gender as the between-subjects factor. Significant Parent Gender X Child Gender interactions for spanking, slapping, or hitting in Colombia, Italy, and the Philippines are described in the text. Frequency of corporal punishment was rated as 1 = never, 2 = less than once a month, 3 = about once a month, 4 = about once a week, and 5 = almost every day.