Worse than hitting your child: A cross-cultural analysis of the mother-child relationship

Using the International Parenting Study (ips) questionnaire, this study measures the effects of abusive levels of maternal discipline on child-to-mother violence in a cross-cultural sample of 469 Colombian and American freshman-level college students. The ips assesses the respondents’ childhood relationship with their mother, their parents’ relationship toward each other, and their personality traits in adulthood. This instrument relies on the respondents’ memories of experiences that occurred around the age of 10 regarding maternal disciplinary practices, their mother’s reaction toward their misbehavior, parental domestic violence, and the child’s verbal abuse and physical violence toward their mother. The correlation between the respondents’ childhood experiences and their adult personality traits is also analyzed. The analysis shows similarities and differences between American and Colombian childrearing practices. For example, for most respondents, their mother was the most significant caretaker, and in comparison, to their father’s forms of discipline, maternal discipline was perceived as fair and producing positive effects. This study shows that Colombian mothers use corporal punishment to discipline their children more often than their American counterparts, but both American and Colombian mothers use corporal punishment and severe physical child abuse more often toward boys than girls. However, maternal psychological aggression, rather than maternal use of physical violence to discipline the child, is the strongest predictor of a child’s use of violence against the mother. This study contributes to the existent literature in that it provides support to cultural transmission through imitation and observation, learning, differential association, and power-control theories: that is, violent behavior is learned in the family, reinforced by attitudes favorable to that behavior, and transmitted from one generation to the next. The common use of violence by the mother (and her male partner) may become a “normal” pattern or way to interact with any or all family members. It also supports the hypothesis of the co-occurrence of various types of violence in a violent home, as domestic violence and child abuse. Finally, policy implications are discussed.