SynthesisNature human behaviour2025
Physical punishment and lifelong outcomes in low‑ and middle‑income countries: a systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Nature human behaviour, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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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.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring Factors Associated With Self-Reported Parental Spanking and Hitting Out of Anger: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analyses Using National Panel Data.Family process · 2026Article
- Cumulative Exposure to Harsh Discipline at Home and School on Child Development: Evidence From Ghana.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Facilitators' champion behaviors for delivering an evidence-based parenting program.American journal of community psychology · 2026Article
- Prenatal and Early Childhood Ambient Heat Exposure and Developmental Outcomes: A Systematic Review.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2026Review
- The Relation Between Parenting Stress and Children's Social Anxiety in Chinese Family: The Roles of Maladaptive Parenting and FKBP5 Gene Variation.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Self-reported spanking history among adults in Canada: Prevalence, experiences, and attitudinal beliefs.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2026Article
- Conflict resolution tactics between mothers and children in a capital city in southeastern Brazil: prevalence and correlations.Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da U S P · 2026Article
- Network analysis of the relationship between negative life events and depressive symptoms among adolescents: a comparison between males and females.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Research from high-income countries has found negative outcomes associated with physical punishment. Yet, the extent to which such research evidence generalizes to children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is largely unknown. The objective of the current pre-registered study (PROSPERO: CRD42022347346 ) was to conduct a meta-analysis of the associations between childhood physical punishment and individual outcomes in LMICs. We identified eligible articles by searching for keywords related to physical punishment in six languages across 11 databases, with search periods from April to August 2021 and June to July 2024. This process yielded 5,072 unique records, of which 189 studies, comprising 1,490 unique effect sizes and representing 92 LMICs, met our inclusion criteria. Findings from random-effects multilevel meta-analyses indicated that physical punishment was associated with detrimental outcomes, including mental health problems, worse parent-child relationships, substance use, impaired social-emotional development, negative academic outcomes and heightened externalizing behaviour problems, among others. Despite some variation by contextual and study-level characteristics, all subgroup estimates were consistent in direction. Sensitivity checks indicated that these findings were not typical of other non-violent methods of discipline but were specific to physical punishment and psychological aggression. The analysis confirmed that physical punishment is associated with detrimental outcomes for individuals in LMICs. Additional research is needed to inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of policies and interventions to prevent the physical punishment of children and adolescents worldwide.
Indexed as
Identifiers
40325199What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.