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Subculture Differences in Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: College Students Versus Active-duty Military

Received: 25 August 2021    Accepted: 14 September 2021    Published: 19 November 2021
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Abstract

With growing evidence of both short- and long-term detrimental effects of corporal punishment on children, efforts to end corporal punishment are working. However, evidence also suggests that the ongoing incidence of corporal punishment varies across intersectional strata. To more fully understand the variation in attitudes toward corporal punishment across subcultures, a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 factorial vignette design was used to examine (a) whether active duty military personnel, the general population, and college students differ in their attitudes about the acceptability of corporal punishment; (b) variations in attitudes according to ethnic differences after naturally controlling for socioeconomic disparity in the all-volunteer active duty military sample; and (c) whether respondent age, sex, parental status, or education predict varying attitudes toward the use of corporal punishment. Substantially more military respondents (73.6%) than the general population (42.8%) and college student (40.1%) respondents indicated the use of corporal punishment was appropriate in the vignette scenario. Similarly, if faced with the same set of circumstances, 52.4% of military respondents indicated they would spank their own child, compared to 28.7% among the general population, and 34.2% among college students. Respondents’ rationales for their responses, implications of these findings, and future directions are discussed.

Published in Education Journal (Volume 10, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11
Page(s) 204-217
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Corporal Punishment, Military, Cultural Corporal Punishment, Spanking

References
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  • APA Style

    David Anthony Weisenhorn, Jason David Hans. (2021). Subculture Differences in Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: College Students Versus Active-duty Military. Education Journal, 10(6), 204-217. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11

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    David Anthony Weisenhorn; Jason David Hans. Subculture Differences in Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: College Students Versus Active-duty Military. Educ. J. 2021, 10(6), 204-217. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11

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    AMA Style

    David Anthony Weisenhorn, Jason David Hans. Subculture Differences in Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: College Students Versus Active-duty Military. Educ J. 2021;10(6):204-217. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11,
      author = {David Anthony Weisenhorn and Jason David Hans},
      title = {Subculture Differences in Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: College Students Versus Active-duty Military},
      journal = {Education Journal},
      volume = {10},
      number = {6},
      pages = {204-217},
      doi = {10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20211006.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.edu.20211006.11},
      abstract = {With growing evidence of both short- and long-term detrimental effects of corporal punishment on children, efforts to end corporal punishment are working. However, evidence also suggests that the ongoing incidence of corporal punishment varies across intersectional strata. To more fully understand the variation in attitudes toward corporal punishment across subcultures, a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 factorial vignette design was used to examine (a) whether active duty military personnel, the general population, and college students differ in their attitudes about the acceptability of corporal punishment; (b) variations in attitudes according to ethnic differences after naturally controlling for socioeconomic disparity in the all-volunteer active duty military sample; and (c) whether respondent age, sex, parental status, or education predict varying attitudes toward the use of corporal punishment. Substantially more military respondents (73.6%) than the general population (42.8%) and college student (40.1%) respondents indicated the use of corporal punishment was appropriate in the vignette scenario. Similarly, if faced with the same set of circumstances, 52.4% of military respondents indicated they would spank their own child, compared to 28.7% among the general population, and 34.2% among college students. Respondents’ rationales for their responses, implications of these findings, and future directions are discussed.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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Author Information
  • Department of Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, University of Kentucky, Lexington, United States

  • Department of Family Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, United States

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