P3A156: Higher Income Is Associated with Increased Physical Discipline During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: In 2020, over 100,000 children in the United States were victims of physical abuse. Families with lower socioeconomic status are more likely to be reported for physical abuse. Physical discipline is a known risk factor for child physical abuse. Whether parental discipline practices changed during the COVID-19 pandemic remains unclear. Our objective was to assess the frequency and changes in self-reported parental discipline practices and association with household income and parental perception of child behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A national, cross-sectional survey study recruited parents through Qualtrics panels in August 2022; parents of children less than 18 years were included in analyses. Surveys included adapted questions from the validated International Child Abuse Screening Tool Parent Version and perceived changes in child behavior and parent discipline practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chi-square test was used to test the association between the usage of different discipline methods and demographics.

Results: Among 1886 participants, mean parent age was 35.6 years (SD = 8.7), and 71.9% identified as female and 75.2% as white; 51.3% self-reported using physical discipline practices. Higher household income levels (≥$150,000) were associated with increased frequency of aggressive shaking than lower income levels (≤$34,999), 40.2% vs 13.9%, respectively, p<.0001. Higher incomes were also associated with more frequent use of other physical discipline practices (Table 1). There were no significant differences observed across income levels in the frequency of spanking on the buttocks with a bare hand, using time out or taking away a privilege. Participants with higher income were more likely to report an increased use of physical discipline during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with those with lower income, 16.7% vs 3.7%, respectively, p< 0.0001 (Table 2). Participants in the highest income group were more likely to report “somewhat” or “significantly more” behavior problems during the pandemic than those in the lowest income group, 36.1% vs 21.8%, respectively, p< 0.0001.

Conclusion: We found that parents in higher income households were more likely to self-report increased behavior problems and physical discipline practices that are high risk for abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, other studies have shown that low income parents are more likely to be reported for physical abuse. Bias toward identifying physical abuse in low income households could lead to under-diagnosis and under-reporting of physical abuse in high income households.