The residue effects of parental corporal punishment on young adults' psychological adjustment: Evidence from Malaysia

Abstract

The potential impacts of corporal punishment continue to be debated among scholars and policy makers, yet no clear picture has emerged. This study examined the relationship between parental corporal punishment and psychological adjustment among young adults (n = 271) aged 19 to 25 years at a Malaysian public university. Participants completed measures of the ADULT PPQ: Physical Punishment Questionnaire and the ADULT PAQ: Personality Assessment Questionnaire. The findings revealed that parental corporal punishment is a prevalent phenomenon in Malaysia. All parental punishment variables, that is, harshness, justness, and forms of punishment, correlate significantly with the psychological adjustment. The study also showed that perceived parental harshness and maternal justness were found to be the strongest predictors of one’s psychological adjustment for each parent. Paternal and maternal punishment, however, do not differ significantly in predicting young adults’ psychological development. Besides that, the parental prediction model only accounted for 13% to 15% of the variance in psychological adjustment, suggesting that not every child perceived corporal punishment as parental rejection. The results showed that remembered corporal punishment is associated with greater or lesser psychosocial adjustment, depending on whether that corporal punishment was perceived as harsh or just.