The Effects of Igbo Cultural Importance and Participation in Cultural Events on the Parents’ Use of Physical Punishments on Their Children in Imo State of Nigeria

This study examined parents’ use of physical punishments in disciplining their children from the cultural perspective. The importance of Igbo cultural values, parents' participation in Igbo cultural events and how the parents respond to the bad behaviors of their children in their families were determined. The cultural aspect of the Ecological system model was used to examine how the parents use physical punishments on their children. Multi-staged sampling method was used to select the 411 parents who were administered the questionnaires. Dimensions of Disciplinary Inventory (DDI) developed by Straus and Fauchier (2007) was used to measure the parents’ use of physical punishments on their children while the Cultural Values and Belief Scale developed by Rusty, Reynolds, Randal, Beth and Duane (2004) was used to measure cultural importance (Part 'A') and the participation in cultural events (Part 'B'). The study indicated that parents’ use of physical punishments have moderate and positive correlation with cultural importance and the participation in cultural events. Results of the Multiple Linear Regression analysis demonstrate the unique contributions of the variables to the parents’ use of physical punishments on their children. The discussion highlighted the roles of cultural importance and the participation in cultural events among the parents and how they cope with the bad behaviors of their children in their families. The result of this study was used to further support some earlier findings on the study of culture and the use of physical punishments on the children.