What predicts mothers' use of spanking in the first 6 years of early childhood? A latent growth curve analysis

Parents' use of spanking with infants and toddlers is of concern because this early onset of spanking may escalate over early childhood heightening the risk for child abuse. This study has two goals. First, using latent growth modelling, we examined the changes in parents' use of spanking across 6 years starting from infancy. Second, we identified predictors that can explain differences in parents' use of spanking. We analysed longitudinal data using a sample of 397 low-income ethnic minority mothers (mean age = 24.53 years; 66% single) with infants/toddlers. Results showed that 40% of mothers endorsed spanking their infants and toddlers. Higher use of spanking was associated with younger mothers, African American mothers, and married/cohabiting mothers. The use of spanking was also found to increase across the first 6 years of childhood with steeper increase found among mothers with higher parental stress or with boys. Depressive symptoms were associated with higher spanking use at age 3. Given the high use of spanking and its trajectory of increase during early childhood, spanking at a young age could be a marker for elevated risk of maltreatment. Practice implications include expanding early childhood services to support parenting and to assess the psychological well-being of mothers.