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Parental Corporal Punishment: The Short- and Long-Term Biological Effects During Childhood and Later in Life

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Handbook of Anger, Aggression, and Violence

Abstract

Corporal punishment is the use of physical force to cause a child to experience pain but not injury, and it is used for purposes of correction or control of the child’s behavior. The purpose of this chapter is to synthesize the information available on the effect of parental corporal punishment on short- and long-term health outcomes. Findings were reported and compared for individual articles published from 1997 to 2022 that used standard methodology to study a broad array of health outcomes. The outcomes included were divided into those that impact a child’s life and leave “scars” that can be identified and are visible: psychosocial functioning, physical health, mental health, as well as the “hidden” effects of such exposures on children’s biology in physiological biomarkers that also have the potential to programming children’s health and translating into negative health outcomes later in life.

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Abbreviations

CP:

Corporal punishment

CRP:

C-reactive protein

DNA:

Deoxyribonucleic acid

IQ:

Intelligence quotient

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Correspondence to Sílvia Fraga .

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Fraga, S., Abrahamyan, A., Amorim, M., Soares, S. (2023). Parental Corporal Punishment: The Short- and Long-Term Biological Effects During Childhood and Later in Life. In: Martin, C.R., Preedy, V.R., Patel, V.B. (eds) Handbook of Anger, Aggression, and Violence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31547-3_76

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