Swedish Trends in Criminal Assaults against Minors since Banning Spanking, 1981-2010

Abstract: This study uses Swedish trends in alleged criminal assaults against minors to investigate whether societal violence has decreased since their spanking ban in 1979.The rates of all assaults increased dramatically. Compared to 1981, criminal statistics in 2010 included about 22 times as many cases of physical child abuse, 24 times as many assaults by minors against minors, and 73 times as many rapes of minors under the age of 15. Although the first cohort born after the spanking ban showed a smaller percentage increase in perpetrating assaults against minors than other age cohorts, those born since the spanking ban had almost a 12-fold increase in perpetrations altogether, compared to a 7-fold increase for older age cohorts. Although some increases might reflect changes in reporting practices, their magnitude and consistency suggest that part of these increases are real. Recent increases may be due to expanding proscriptions against nonphysical disciplinary consequences. Future research needs to identify effective alternative disciplinary consequences to replace spanking. Otherwise, proscriptions against an expanding range of disciplinary consequences may undermine the kind of appropriate parental authority that can facilitate the development of impulse control in oppositional children and appropriate respect for others, especially the physically vulnerable

Do nonphysical punishments reduce antisocial behavior more than spanking? a comparison using the strongest previous causal evidence against spanking

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The strongest causal evidence that customary spanking increases antisocial behavior is based on prospective studies that control statistically for initial antisocial differences. None of those studies have investigated alternative disciplinary tactics that parents could use instead of spanking, however. Further, the small effects in those studies could be artifactual due to residual confounding, reflecting child effects on the frequency of all disciplinary tactics. This study re-analyzes the strongest causal evidence against customary spanking and uses these same methods to determine whether alternative disciplinary tactics are more effective in reducing antisocial behavior.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study re-analyzed a study by Straus et al.<abbrgrp><abbr bid="B1">1</abbr></abbrgrp> on spanking and antisocial behavior using a sample of 785 children who were 6 to 9 years old in the 1988 cohort of the American National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The comprehensiveness and reliability of the covariate measure of initial antisocial behavior were varied to test for residual confounding. All analyses were repeated for grounding, privilege removal, and sending children to their room, and for psychotherapy. To account for covarying use of disciplinary tactics, the analyses were redone first for the 73% who had reported using at least one discipline tactic and second by controlling for usage of other disciplinary tactics and psychotherapy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The apparently adverse effect of spanking on antisocial behavior was replicated using the original trichotomous covariate for initial antisocial behavior. A similar pattern of adverse effects was shown for grounding and psychotherapy and partially for the other two disciplinary tactics. All of these effects became non-significant after controlling for latent comprehensive measures of externalizing behavior problems.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results are consistent with residual confounding, a statistical artifact that makes all corrective actions by parents and psychologists appear to increase children's antisocial behavior due to child effects on parents. Improved research methods are needed to discriminate between effective vs. counterproductive implementations of disciplinary tactics. How and when disciplinary tactics are used may be more important than which type of tactic is used.</p

The Ursinus Weekly, October 21, 1963

Cry the beloved country to be given at UC Wednesday • Dean Rothenberger in Who\u27s who of American women • Ursinus College is dinner host to 200 neighbors • College Bowl team selected by test • Report from the women\u27s customs committee • 1963 men\u27s customs report • Lantern seeks literary works • Soph bazaar, hop set for Nov. 2 • Spirit Committee plans cheering section • Romaine to lead freshmen; Banquet, dance follow election • Summer projects pre-medders topic • IRC plans first meeting • Editorial: College Bowl team; UC hootenanny • E. Blake on the summer of revolt • Letters to the editor • Parents Day, 1963 • Young Republicans plan for year • 80 UC students visit Winterthur • Have you read: Caravans • Greek gleanings • Former pastor named to Ursinus College faculty • Weekly reporter interviews Thai student • Navy team to visit Ursinus, October 23 • Juniors plan turnabout • John Adams given second going over • Yosts hold first English meeting • Wilkes grinds out 28-8 decision over Bears • UC stops Beaver and West Chester • Jim Garofolo new assistant coach • UC booters off to fast start • Intramural corner: Three team race developshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1254/thumbnail.jp

The Ursinus Weekly, October 21, 1963

Cry the beloved country to be given at UC Wednesday • Dean Rothenberger in Who\u27s who of American women • Ursinus College is dinner host to 200 neighbors • College Bowl team selected by test • Report from the women\u27s customs committee • 1963 men\u27s customs report • Lantern seeks literary works • Soph bazaar, hop set for Nov. 2 • Spirit Committee plans cheering section • Romaine to lead freshmen; Banquet, dance follow election • Summer projects pre-medders topic • IRC plans first meeting • Editorial: College Bowl team; UC hootenanny • E. Blake on the summer of revolt • Letters to the editor • Parents Day, 1963 • Young Republicans plan for year • 80 UC students visit Winterthur • Have you read: Caravans • Greek gleanings • Former pastor named to Ursinus College faculty • Weekly reporter interviews Thai student • Navy team to visit Ursinus, October 23 • Juniors plan turnabout • John Adams given second going over • Yosts hold first English meeting • Wilkes grinds out 28-8 decision over Bears • UC stops Beaver and West Chester • Jim Garofolo new assistant coach • UC booters off to fast start • Intramural corner: Three team race developshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1254/thumbnail.jp

Immediate and Long-Term Effectiveness of Disciplinary Tactics by Type of Toddler Noncompliance

<p><b><i>Objective.</i></b> To clarify when the disciplinary recommendations of positive parenting and behavioral parent training apply, this study investigated how the effectiveness of seven disciplinary tactics varies by type of toddler noncompliance, using methods to improve the validity of causal inferences. <b><i>Design.</i></b> Multilevel modeling and hierarchical longitudinal regression are used to test immediate and long-term effectiveness of disciplinary tactics in a convenience sample of 102 mother–toddler pairs, using coded information from detailed descriptions of a sample of five discipline episodes along with survey measures. <b><i>Results.</i></b> Offering alternatives is the most effective disciplinary tactic for reducing noncompliance severity immediately regardless of the type of noncompliance. Reasoning is the second best tactic for immediately reducing noncompliance severity when responding to parent-oriented noncompliance (negotiating and whining), whereas power assertive and punishment tactics are least effective, but the immediate effectiveness of those tactics reverses when responding to parent-opposing noncompliance (defiance and hitting). Long-term outcomes also differ for toddlers whose predominant noncompliance is parent-oriented or parent-opposing. For parent-oriented toddlers, frequently offering alternatives leads to reduced externalizing problems, whereas punishments increase their behavior problems. For oppositional toddlers, offering alternatives too frequently increases externalizing problems, whereas moderate use of punishments (<16% of the time) decreases total behavior problems. Frequent reasoning also reduces subsequent externalizing problems for oppositional toddlers, despite being the least effective disciplinary response for de-escalating parent-opposing noncompliance immediately. <b><i>Conclusions.</i></b> Parenting advice should move beyond universal disciplinary recommendations to help parents match their disciplinary tactics to their child’s type of noncompliance.</p