Open AccessPhysical punishment as a predictor of early cognitive development: Evidence from econometric approaches.
Author(s) -
Jorge Cuartas,
Dana Charles McCoy,
Andrew GroganKaylor,
Elizabeth T. Gershoff
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.318
H-Index - 213
eISSN - 1939-0599
pISSN - 0012-1649
DOI - 10.1037/dev0001114
Subject(s) - psychology , psycinfo , punishment (psychology) , cognitive development , cognition , developmental psychology , matching (statistics) , argument (complex analysis) , statistics , medline , neuroscience , biochemistry , chemistry , mathematics , political science , law
This study estimates the effect of physical punishment on the cognitive development of 1,167 low-income Colombian children (Mage = 17.8 months old) using 3 analytic strategies: lagged-dependent variables, a difference-in-differences-like approach (DD), and a novel strategy combining matching with a DD-like approach. Across approaches, physical punishment at ages 9-26 months predicted reductions in children's cognitive development of 0.08-0.21 SD at ages 27-46 months. These results, plus null results of falsification tests, strengthen the argument that physical punishment leads to slower cognitive growth and illustrate the utility of alternative statistical methods to reduce problems of selection bias in developmental research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).