Attitudes of Palestinian Parents Who Live within the Palestinian Authority Regarding the Use of Corporal Punishment toward their Children : Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Abstract

In the literature review section of the study I discussed two phenomena, sometimes dealt within different theoretical contexts: child abuse and child corporal punishment.
Although the theme of the present study is parents' attitudes toward child corporal punishment practices I assumed that both phenomena belong to a common theoretical
content area. The phenomenon of corporal punishment, similarly to child abuse, is prevalent today in most countries all over the world. It is agreed upon by scholars
that parents' attitudes toward corporal punishment, as well as other forms of punishment, are influenced by social and cultural contexts. Yet, there exist different theories regarding their impact. The conclusion that can be drawn from the literature review is that parents' attitudes toward corporal punishment are influenced by several
sources and cannot be attributed to a single context. Furthermore, several studies point to the correlations between the independent variables of the phenomenon as well as to the influence of moderating variables. A salient example is the correlation between the socioeconomic status of parents and the cultural characteristics of society as
independent variables parents' attitudes towards corporal punishment.