Child Discipline in Times of Conflict

Michael Malcolm (mmalcolm@wcupa.edu), Vidya Diwakar (vdiwakar90@gmail.com) and George Naufal
Additional contact information
Michael Malcolm: West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Vidya Diwakar: Overseas Development Institute

No 10936, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using a unique pairing of household survey data and geolocational conflict data, we investigate the relationship between local conflict intensity and the disciplinary methods employed by Iraqi households. We find that parents in high-conflict areas are more likely to use both moderate and severe corporal punishment, and are less likely to use constructive parenting techniques like redirection. While there is a general sense that war has profound long-term impacts on the psychological health of children, research on transmission mechanisms is very limited. These are among the first results that rigorously document an association between violent conflict and child maltreatment and, to our knowledge, the first that document changes in child discipline practices even across a mainstream parenting spectrum. Given the persistence of early childhood outcomes into adulthood, these results are potentially an important piece of assessing and mitigating the long-term costs of war on the civilian population.

Keywords: Middle East; mental health; child discipline; Iraq war; household interactions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 F51 J13 N45 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2017-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - published in: Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2020, 64 (6), 1070–1094

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp10936.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Child Discipline in Times of Conflict (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10936

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
library@iza.org

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte (hinte@iza.org).