ArticleBMC pediatrics2024
Physical punishment and effective verbal communication in children aged 9-36 months, according to sex: secondary analysis of a national survey.
Article in BMC pediatrics, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- Physical punishment and lifelong outcomes in low‑ and middle‑income countries: a systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis.Nature human behaviour · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence and factors associated with psychological aggression and physical punishment among children aged 12 to 59 months in Malaysia: findings from the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2022.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Play Nicely: Evaluation of a Brief Intervention to Reduce Physical Punishment and the Beliefs That Justify It.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA substantial number of children in the world are regularly subjected to physical punishment by their parents as a method of upbringing. Evidence suggests that it has negative effects on the development of brain function. However, evidence regarding its association with verbal communication is limited and heterogeneous. It is also unknown whether the effects are the same in both boys and girls; especially in the contexts of developing countries, where the highest rates of physical punishment are found.
objectiveThis investigation aimed at analyzing the association between physical punishment administered by both fathers and mothers and effective verbal communication among children aged 9-36 months according to sex.
methodsA secondary analytical cross-sectional study was conducted based on the 2018-2019 Peruvian Demographic and Family Health Survey. Physical punishment, based on the mother's report of the use of hitting and/or slapping, was considered as a method to correct children by the father and/or mother. Effective verbal communication (EVC) was measured using the Battle scale which consists of age-appropriate questions included in the early childhood development module. A generalized linear model of the family and Log Poisson link option was used to identify the association between them, using the crude, general adjusted, and sex-stratified models.
resultsOf all the children, 16.31% received physical punishment from their father and/or mother, wherein 16.65% were boys and 15.97% were girls. Moreover, 36.48% exhibited EVC, wherein 32.55% were boys and 40.50% were girls. Adjusting for socioeconomic level, witnessing violence, mother's marital status, age, occupation, education level, language, number of children, and moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms, it was found that boys who received physical punishment from their father and/or mother have a 31% lower probability of EVC (adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR) 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.58-0.83, p < 0.001), whereas no association was found in girls who received physical punishment from their father and/or mother and EVC (aPR 0.93, 95% CI 0.81-1.06, p = 0.278).
conclusionsAn association was found between physical punishment administered by father and/or mother and reduced EVC among boys, whereas no such association was found among girls. It is possible that even though a significant impact has not been observed in girls during this early stage, they may experience consequences in later stages of life, further research is needed.
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