Childhood physical punishment and later alcohol drinking consequences: evidence from a Chinese context.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the current study is to estimate a link between early physical punishment in childhood and later alcohol outcomes, taking family history of drinking problems into account, with epidemiological data from China. The yield from previous studies on this relationship is mixed evidence, largely traceable to research design variations, including model specifications that concern parental alcohol or other drug problems (AODPs) that might account for both earlier discipline practices and later drinking problems in the offspring.

METHOD: Data are from the World Mental Health Surveys-metropolitan China study, with cross-sectional representative sample surveys of adult household residents living in two metropolitan cities, Beijing and Shanghai. Participants in this general mental health survey were asked about early life experiences (e.g., parental AODP, childhood misbehavior), as well as their own drinking outcomes. Stratification was used to control for parental AODP.

RESULTS

Logistic regressions found robust associations linking childhood physical punishment with drinking outcomes, even with stratification for parental AODP and childhood misbehavior.

CONCLUSIONS

These results from a cross-sectional survey lay a foundation for future prospective and longitudinal research on possible causal relationships that link childhood physical punishment with later drinking outcomes in China.