Household economic hardship as a moderator of the associations between maternal spanking and child externalizing behavior problems

Spanking is associated with detrimental outcomes for young children. Research shows that spanking is more commonly used in low-income households. To examine whether economic hardship, measured by household income-to-poverty ratio at the time of the child’s birth, moderated the longitudinal associations between maternal spanking and child externalizing behavior problems during the first nine years of childhood. Mother-child pairs (N = 4,149) from a cohort study of urban families in 20 US cities. Cross-lagged path models examined associations between maternal spanking and externalizing behavior when children were between the ages of 1 and 9. Multigroup analyses examined whether income-to-poverty ratio moderated these associations. Bivariate analyses showed that income-to-poverty ratio was associated with child externalizing behavior problems at each time point; income-to-poverty ratio was associated with maternal spanking at age 3 only. Longitudinal path model results indicated that, for low- and middle-income groups, maternal spanking at each age had significant associations with child externalizing behavior at each subsequent age. For the high-income group, maternal spanking at age 1 and age 3 had significant associations with child externalizing behavior at each subsequent age; however, spanking at age 5 was not associated with child externalizing behavior at age 9. Spanking is disadvantageous for children at all income levels, with more persistent effects in low- and middle-income families. For higher-income families, the associations of maternal spanking with child externalizing behavior problems may be attenuated as child age increases. Regardless of income level, parents should be advised against spanking.