Sex Differences in the Intergenerational Transmission of Harsh Punishment of Children in Ghana

Abstract

The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between mothers’ and fathers’ use of harsh punishment on their children and their retrospective accounts of their own experiences of harsh parenting in childhood, in Ghana. Participants consisted of 1,202 parents (601 mothers and 601 fathers) who completed a questionnaire on harsh disciplinary practices. The findings showed associations between mothers’ and fathers’ childhood experiences of harsh punishment and their current use of such disciplinary techniques on their own children. Exposure and transmission varied by sex in that males were more exposed to harsh punishment when they were young than females, and they also punished their own children more often than females. Both males and females assessed that they used much less harsh parenting than they themselves had been exposed to as young. The use of physical punishment is a shared cultural value that is rooted as part of the Ghanaian national values. However, transmission in the use of harsh disciplinary measures across generations may be broken if younger generations of parents learn to use alternative ways of disciplining a child.