Childhood Corporal Punishment and Future Experiences with Dating Violence

Mounting evidence demonstrates the deleterious mental and physical outcomes of corporal punishment. Less is known about the role of this form of punishment and future experiences with dating violence. Young adults (n = 758; 61% female; mean age of 20), originally recruited as 9th and 10th grade high school students for a longitudinal study, were asked about their childhood experiences with corporal punishment and physical abuse, as well as current experiences with dating violence. A path model was used to determine if childhood corporal punishment was related to recent perpetration of physical dating violence, while controlling for childhood abuse, age, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. 19% of participants (N = 134) reported physical dating violence perpetration and 51% reported being spanked as children (N = 498, M = 1.07, SD = 0.96). Univariate analysis showed a significant positive association between spanking and physical DV perpetration, OR = 1.16, 95% CI = 1.04, 1.30). Even after controlling for gender, ethnicity, age, parental education, and physical child abuse, spanking was significantly associated with physical DV perpetration (aOR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.03, 1.34). The finding that childhood spanking was associated with perpetration of young adult physical dating violence, even after controlling for several demographic variables and childhood abuse, adds to the growing literature demonstrating deleterious outcomes associated with corporal punishment.