Physical discipline as a normative childhood experience in Singapore

Table 2 Prevalence of physical discipline of children at age 4.5, 6, 9, and 11

Age of Assessment (Questionnaire)^a	Parent/Physical Discipline in Subscale	Frequency Reported by Parents^b
Age of Assessment (Questionnaire)^a	Parent/Physical Discipline in Subscale	1. Never	2. Once in a While/Almost Never	3. About Half of the Time/Sometimes	4. Very Often/Often	5. Always	Prevalence^c
Age 4.5 (PSDQ)	Mother (n = 399)
	Physical Punishment, General %	16	56	16	10	3	84
	Spank %	19	44	21	11	5	81
	Slap %	57	33	6	3	2	43
	Grab %	42	35	12	9	2	58
	Any Form of Physical Discipline %^d	—	—	—	—	—	94
Age 6 (APQ)	Mother (n = 538)
	Spank %	10	17	60	10	3	90
	Slap %	45	29	25	1	0	55
	Hit With Object %	53	16	26	4	1	46
	Any Form of Physical Discipline %^d	—	—	—	—	—	93
	Father (n = 44)
	Spank %	14	20	55	9	2	86
	Slap %	50	23	25	2	0	50
	Hit With Object %	64	7	25	5	0	36
	Any Form of Physical Discipline %^d	—	—	—	—	—	86
Age 9 (PSDQ)	Mother (n = 414)
	Physical Punishment, General %	23	53	14	7	4	77
	Spank %	27	47	13	8	5	73
	Slap %	61	31	5	2	1	39
	Grab %	50	32	11	6	2	50
	Any Form of Physical Discipline %^d	—	—	—	—	—	88
	Father (n = 168)
	Physical Punishment, General %	24	48	15	8	5	76
	Spank %	27	41	18	11	2	73
	Slap %	68	22	8	1	1	32
	Grab %	47	32	15	5	1	53
	Any Form of Physical Discipline %^d	—	—	—	—	—	87
Age 11 (PSDQ)	Mother (n = 393)
	Physical Punishment, General %	32	53	9	5	1	68
	Spank %	33	50	8	7	2	67
	Slap %	70	26	2	1	1	30
	Grab %	58	32	6	3	1	42
	Any Form of Physical Discipline %^d	—	—	—	—	—	81

^aData from the physical coercion dimension of the PSDQ at the age 4.5, 9, and 11 assessments, and from the corporal punishment subscale of the APQ at the age 6 assessment
^bPercentage of children by parents’ self-reported frequency of using the physical discipline. Labels for response scales 2 to 4 differed by questionnaire. Labels for the PSDQ are provided before the forward slash, and labels for the APQ are provided after the forward slash
^cPercentage of children whose parents endorsed using the physical discipline, regardless of frequency of use
^dIn bold font are the percentages of children whose parents, regardless of frequency, endorsed using at least one physical discipline

ISSN: 1753-2000