Weihrauch_Camryn_2020_ResearchForum-Video
Does college make you a better parent? It may depend on what classes you take.
The American Psychological Association (APA) recently suggested that physical discipline is an ineffective tool in child-rearing and may have harmful long-term effects. Recently, research has shown a link between parental education levels and the type of discipline used in raising their child. For example, greater physical discipline (e.g., spanking) is associated with lower parental education level. In our research, we examined the connection between parental education and spanking as There does not seem to be extensive research exploring why college education is related to views on spanking. The purpose of our study was to examine the differences in students before and after their college experience, hypothesizing that advances in cognition and specific courses taken may explain lower endorsement of spanking. Differences were analyzed in areas of cognitive style and beliefs about spanking; additionally, for seniors, we measured course-related experience with parenting. Participants were Ohio State freshman (n = 272) and seniors (n = 183) recruited through a Qualtrics survey sent to their school email. They were asked about their attitudes regarding spanking in general and age-delimited spanking. Additionally, there were scales ranking participants’ Need for Cognition (e.g., preferring complex to simple problems) and Postformal Thought (e.g., problems may require different types of logic). Seniors reported significantly higher Need for Cognition and lower endorsement of spanking than freshmen. However, no significant differences were found on the Postformal Thought Scale. For seniors, we found that, controlling for the participant’s ages, parent’s average education level, and how frequently students were spanked as a child, the number of courses taken, but not the Need for Cognition Scale, predicted attitudes about spanking. Based on our findings, it is possible that specific coursework may predict spanking attitudes. This implies that students taking relevant coursework may benefit from coverage of parental discipline.
Camryn,
Nice job! It is definitely an interesting subject to look at child-rearing disciplines and the education of parents. I’m wondering if the result of no significant difference was found because of the presence of another variable in the population? Would a future study of looking at whether there is a difference between college-seeking individuals verses individuals who don’t enter college at all? My own personal thoughts are that maybe it isn’t a college education, but how parents view college education and whether they personally seek it?
Camryn, nice work! You did a good job with this. And very importantly, you focused on a topic that is relevant to “soon to be” parents! good work!
Dr. Tim
Hi Camryn,
Very interesting research. Your presentation was well-organized and informative. Great work!