The Longitudinal Association between Corporal Punishment and Aggression: the Explanatory Mechanism of Relational Victimization

The mechanism underlying the association between corporal punishment and adolescent aggression remains unclear. This research advances the comprehensive understanding of this developmental pattern, by being the first study to separately test the transactional associations among corporal punishment, relational victimization and aggression subtypes. The current study used a longitudinal design across three time points (the fall semester of 7th grade, the fall of 8th grade, and the fall of 9th grade). Only adolescents participating in all the three time points were included in this study, resulting in a final sample of 342 adolescents (175 boys, 167 girls) who completed questionnaires regarding corporal punishment, relational victimization, and aggression. Gender, age and socioeconomic status were controlled for in the analyses. Autoregressive cross-lagged models indicated that there was a direct longitudinal link from corporal punishment at 7th grade to being relationally victimized at 8th grade. Moreover, we found a significant link from relational victimization at 8th grade to both physical aggression and indirect aggression at 9th grade. Furthermore, relational victimization could explain the association between corporal punishment and both types of aggression. Knowledge about these developmental processes would inform prevention and intervention programs designed to disrupt the link between corporal punishment and aggression.