Tolerant Maternal Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment and Peer Violence Among Children: Implications of Harsh Parenting and Child Self-Esteem for Parenting Education in Mothers With Adverse Childhood Experiences

Purpose: This study examined how parenting behaviors and child self-esteem mediate the relationship between maternal attitudes toward corporal punishment and peer violence perpetration by children. The analysis focused on mothers with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Specifically, the study tested both parallel mediation (positive and harsh parenting behaviors) and serial mediation involving child self-esteem.Methods: This study conducted a secondary data analysis using the 2018 nationwide survey administered by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. The sample consisted of 1,097 mothers, each of whom reported at least one ACE. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics ver. 26.0 and the PROCESS macro Model 80. Maternal attitudes toward corporal punishment were specified as the independent variable. Positive and harsh parenting behaviors were included as parallel mediators, child self-esteem was modeled as a serial mediator, and peer violence perpetration was treated as the dependent variable. The significance of indirect effects was evaluated using bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples drawn from the original dataset, with bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals.Results: Maternal attitudes toward corporal punishment were significantly associated with harsh parenting behaviors. These behaviors, in turn, had a negative impact on child self-esteem and contributed to greater perpetration of peer violence. The indirect effects were statistically significant based on bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals derived from the bootstrapped sampling distribution. Positive parenting behaviors did not exhibit any significant mediating effects.Conclusion: Tolerant attitudes toward corporal punishment may increase peer violence among children by encouraging harsh parenting and lowering self-esteem. These findings suggest that mitigating harsh parenting and enhancing child self-esteem may help mitigate peer violence. Accordingly, tailored parenting education is recommended for mothers with ACEs.