Shouting, hitting, and taking away privileges are linked to toddlers’ behavior problems across 14 countries
A cross-cultural study published in Child Psychiatry & Human Development shows that coercive discipline during toddlerhood is consistently linked to behavioral and emotional difficulties. Led by Ela Sehic of Washington State University, researchers analyzed data from 865 children aged 17 to 40 months (averaging 27 months) and their mothers across 14 countries via the Joint Effort Toddler Temperament Consortium. National cohorts ranged from 49 families in Chile to 112 in the Netherlands, alongside participants from nations such as China, Brazil, and the United States.
Mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist and rated five discipline methods: shouting, hitting, privilege removal, time-outs, and reflection. Shouting showed the strongest association with total behavior issues: a one standard deviation increase in shouting corresponded to a 0.34 standard deviation rise in problems, compared to 0.25 for hitting and 0.14 for removing privileges.
The nature of these difficulties also differed. Shouting and revoking privileges were linked to both outward problems like aggression and inward problems like anxiety, whereas physical punishment was linked exclusively to internalizing issues. In contrast, non-coercive methods—specifically time-outs and asking toddlers to think about what they did—showed no link to behavioral or emotional difficulties.
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