Individualism, collectivism and conformity in nine countries: Relations with parenting and child adjustment.

This study investigated how individualism, collectivism and conformity are associated with parenting and child adjustment in 1297 families with 10-year-old children from 13 cultural groups in nine countries. With multilevel models disaggregating between- and within-culture effects, we examined between- and within-culture associations between maternal and paternal cultural values, parenting dimensions and children's adjustment. Mothers from cultures endorsing higher collectivism and fathers from cultures endorsing lower individualism engage more frequently in warm parenting behaviours. Mothers and fathers with higher-than-average collectivism in their culture reported higher parent warmth and expectations for children's family obligations. Mothers with higher-than-average collectivism in their cultures more frequently reported warm parenting and fewer externalising problems in children, whereas mothers with higher-than-average individualism in their culture reported more child adjustment problems. Mothers with higher-than-average conformity values in their culture reported more father-displays of warmth and greater mother-reported expectations for children's family obligations. Fathers with higher-than-average individualism in their culture reported setting more rules and soliciting more knowledge about their children's whereabouts. Fathers who endorsed higher-than-average conformity in their culture displayed more warmth and expectations for children's family obligations and granted them more autonomy. Being connected to an interdependent, cohesive group appears to relate to parenting and children's adjustment.

Cultural values, parenting and child adjustment in Colombia.

This study examined associations of mothers' and fathers' individualism, collectivism and conformity values with parenting (warmth, rules/limit-setting, knowledge solicitation and expectations regarding children's family obligations) and child internalising and externalising behaviours in Colombia. Mothers, fathers and children (N = 100) from Medellín, Colombia were interviewed when children were, on average, 10 years old. Higher maternal collectivism and conformity values were associated with higher maternal warmth and fewer child externalising problems, whereas higher paternal collectivism was associated with lower maternal warmth and more child externalising problems. Fathers' cultural values also were related to their expectations regarding children's family obligations. The findings suggest differences in how mothers' and fathers' cultural values are related to parenting and child adjustment in Colombia, as well as the need to examine cultural values beyond individualism, collectivism and conformity values.

Adolescents' relationships with parents and romantic partners in eight countries.

INTRODUCTION: Creating romantic relationships characterized by high-quality, satisfaction, few conflicts, and reasoning strategies to handle conflicts is an important developmental task for adolescents connected to the relational models they receive from their parents. This study examines how parent-adolescent conflicts, attachment, positive parenting, and communication are related to adolescents' romantic relationship quality, satisfaction, conflicts, and management. METHOD: We interviewed 311 adolescents at two time points (females = 52%, ages 15 and 17) in eight countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). Generalized and linear mixed models were run considering the participants' nesting within countries. RESULTS: Adolescents with negative conflicts with their parents reported low romantic relationship quality and satisfaction and high conflicts with their romantic partners. Adolescents experiencing an anxious attachment to their parents reported low romantic relationship quality, while adolescents with positive parenting showed high romantic relationship satisfaction. However, no association between parent-adolescent relationships and conflict management skills involving reasoning with the partner was found. No associations of parent-adolescent communication with romantic relationship dimensions emerged, nor was there any effect of the country on romantic relationship quality or satisfaction. CONCLUSION: These results stress the relevance of parent-adolescent conflicts and attachment as factors connected to how adolescents experience romantic relationships.

Cultural values, parenting and child adjustment in Italy.

The present study examined the association of mothers' and fathers' individualism, collectivism and conformity values with parenting behaviours and child adjustment during middle childhood in an Italian sample. Children (n = 194; 95 from Naples and 99 from Rome; 49% girls) were 10.93 years old (SD = .61) at the time of data collection. Their mothers (n = 194) and fathers (n = 152) also participated. Mother and father reports were collected about parental individualism and collectivism, conformity values, warmth, family obligations expectations and their children's internalising and externalising problems. Child reports were collected about their parents' warmth, psychological control, rules/limit-setting, family obligations expectations and their own internalising and externalising behaviours. Multiple regressions predicted each of the parenting and child adjustment variables from the value variables, controlling for child gender and parent education. Results showed that maternal collectivism was associated with high psychological control, parental collectivism was associated with high expectations regarding children's family obligations and fathers' conformity values were associated with more child internalising behaviours. Overall, the present study shed light on how parents' cultural values are related to some parenting practices and children's internalising problems in Italy.

How adolescents' lives were disrupted over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal investigation in 12 cultural groups in 9 nations from March 2020 to July 2022.

It is unclear how much adolescents' lives were disrupted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic or what risk factors predicted such disruption. To answer these questions, 1,080 adolescents in 9 nations were surveyed 5 times from March 2020 to July 2022. Rates of adolescent COVID-19 life disruption were stable and high. Adolescents who, compared to their peers, lived in nations with higher national COVID-19 death rates, lived in nations with less stringent COVID-19 mitigation strategies, had less confidence in their government's response to COVID-19, complied at higher rates with COVID-19 control measures, experienced the death of someone they knew due to COVID-19, or experienced more internalizing, externalizing, and smoking problems reported more life disruption due to COVID-19 during part or all of the pandemic. Additionally, when, compared to their typical levels of functioning, adolescents experienced spikes in national death rates, experienced less stringent COVID-19 mitigation measures, experienced less confidence in government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, complied at higher rates with COVID-19 control measures, experienced more internalizing problems, or smoked more at various periods during the pandemic, they also experienced more COVID-19 life disruption. Collectively, these findings provide new insights that policymakers can use to prevent the disruption of adolescents' lives in future pandemics.

Developmental Trajectories of Parental Self-Efficacy as Children Transition to Adolescence in Nine Countries: Latent Growth Curve Analyses.

Little is known about the developmental trajectories of parental self-efficacy as children transition into adolescence. This study examined parental self-efficacy among mothers and fathers over 3 1/2 years representing this transition, and whether the level and developmental trajectory of parental self-efficacy varied by cultural group. Data were drawn from three waves of the Parenting Across Cultures (PAC) project, a large-scale longitudinal, cross-cultural study, and included 1178 mothers and 1041 fathers of children who averaged 9.72 years of age at T1 (51.2% girls). Parents were from nine countries (12 ethnic/cultural groups), which were categorized into those with a predominant collectivistic (i.e., China, Kenya, Philippines, Thailand, Colombia, and Jordan) or individualistic (i.e., Italy, Sweden, and USA) cultural orientation based on Hofstede's Individualism Index (Hofstede Insights, 2021). Latent growth curve analyses supported the hypothesis that parental self-efficacy would decline as children transition into adolescence only for parents from more individualistic countries; parental self-efficacy increased over the same years among parents from more collectivistic countries. Secondary exploratory analyses showed that some demographic characteristics predicted the level and trajectory of parental self-efficacy differently for parents in more individualistic and more collectivistic countries. Results suggest that declines in parental self-efficacy documented in previous research are culturally influenced.

Intraindividual variability in parental acceptance-rejection predicts externalizing and internalizing symptoms across childhood/adolescence in nine countries.

Parenting that is high in rejection and low in acceptance is associated with higher levels of internalizing (INT) and externalizing (EXT) problems in children and adolescents. These symptoms develop and can increase in severity to negatively impact adolescents' social, academic, and emotional functioning. However, there are two major gaps in the extant literature: (a) nearly all prior research has focused on between-person differences in acceptance/rejection at the expense of examining intraindividual variability (IIV) across time in acceptance/rejection; and (b) no prior studies examine IIV in acceptance/rejection in diverse international samples. The present study utilized six waves of data with 1,199 adolescents' families living in nine countries from the Parenting Across Cultures study to test the hypotheses that (1) higher amounts of youth IIV in mother acceptance/rejection predict higher internalizing and (2) externalizing symptoms, and (3) that higher youth IIV in father acceptance/rejection predict higher internalizing, and (4) externalizing symptoms. Meta-analytic techniques indicated a significant, positive effect of IIV in child-reported mother and father acceptance/rejection on adolescent externalizing symptoms, and a significant positive effect of IIV in father acceptance/rejection on internalizing symptoms. The weighted effect for mother acceptance/rejection on internalizing symptoms was not statistically significant. Additionally, there was significant heterogeneity in all meta-analytic estimates. More variability over time in experiences of parental acceptance/rejection predicts internalizing and externalizing symptoms as children transition into adolescence, and this effect is present across multiple diverse samples. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The developmental trends of parental self-efficacy and adolescents' rule-breaking behaviors in the Italian context: A 7-wave latent growth curve study.

Parental self-efficacy (PSE) captures parents' beliefs in their ability to perform the parenting role successfully and to handle pivotal issues of specific developmental periods. Although previous studies have shown that, across the transition to adolescence, parents show decreasing levels of PSE while adolescents exhibit increasing engagement in rule-breaking (RB) behaviors, there is a paucity of studies investigating whether and how changes in PSE are related to late adolescents' RB behaviors across development. The present study examined the developmental trends of PSE among Italian mothers and fathers over seven waves (representing children's transition from late childhood to late adolescence; approximately from 9 to 18 years old) as well as the longitudinal associations between PSE and RB behaviors during late adolescence. Data were drawn from seven waves of the Parenting Across Cultures (PAC) project, a large-scale longitudinal, cross-cultural study, and included 200 Italian children (MAgeAtTime1 = 9.80, SD = 0.65; 50.5% girls) and their parents (200 mothers; 190 fathers). PSE was measured across all seven time-points (from T1 to T7), while adolescents' RB behaviors were measured at the first and last assessment (T1 and T7). Results of univariate latent growth models showed a cubic trend of mothers' PSE, which revealed a decreasing pattern characterized initially by a slight decline, followed by a rebound before continuously decreasing. By contrast, fathers' PSE followed a linear decrease over time. Finally, our findings evidenced that only the slope of mothers' PSE negatively predicted adolescents' RB behaviors at T7, implying that mothers who maintained higher levels of PSE over time had children who later engaged in lower RB behaviors. The study implications are discussed.

Predictors and outcomes associated with the growth curves of self-efficacy beliefs in regard to anger and sadness regulation during adolescence: a longitudinal cross-cultural study.

Introduction: This longitudinal study examined unique and joint effects of parenting and negative emotionality in predicting the growth curves of adolescents' self-efficacy beliefs about regulating two discrete negative emotions (anger and sadness) and the association of these growth curves with later maladjustment (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems). Methods: Participants were 285 children (T1: M age = 10.57, SD = 0.68; 53.3% girls) and their parents (mothers N = 286; fathers N = 276) from Colombia and Italy. Parental warmth, harsh parenting, and internalizing and externalizing problems were measured in late childhood at T1, whereas early adolescents' anger and sadness were measured at T2 (T2: M age = 12.10, SD = 1.09). Adolescent self-efficacy beliefs about anger and sadness regulation were measured at five time-points from T2 to T6 (T6: M age = 18.45, SD = 0.71), and internalizing and externalizing problems were measured again at T6. Results: Multi-group latent growth curve models (with country as the grouping variable) demonstrated that in both countries there was on average a linear increase in self-efficacy about anger regulation and no change or variation in self-efficacy about sadness regulation. In both countries, for self-efficacy about anger regulation (a) T1 harsh parenting and T1 externalizing problems were negatively associated with the intercept, (b) T2 anger was negatively associated with the slope, and (c) the intercept and the slope were associated with lower T6 internalizing and externalizing problems, controlling for T1 problems. For self-efficacy about sadness regulation, (a) T1 internalizing problems were negatively associated with the intercept only in Italy, (b) T2 sadness was negatively associated with the intercept only in Colombia, and (c) the intercept negatively predicted T6 internalizing problems. Discussion: This study advances knowledge of the normative development of self-efficacy beliefs about anger and sadness regulation during adolescence across two countries, highlighting the predictive value of pre-existing family and individual characteristics on this development and prediction by the development of self-efficacy beliefs on later adjustment.

Predicting Adolescent Mental Health Outcomes Across Cultures: A Machine Learning Approach.

Adolescent mental health problems are rising rapidly around the world. To combat this rise, clinicians and policymakers need to know which risk factors matter most in predicting poor adolescent mental health. Theory-driven research has identified numerous risk factors that predict adolescent mental health problems but has difficulty distilling and replicating these findings. Data-driven machine learning methods can distill risk factors and replicate findings but have difficulty interpreting findings because these methods are atheoretical. This study demonstrates how data- and theory-driven methods can be integrated to identify the most important preadolescent risk factors in predicting adolescent mental health. Machine learning models examined which of 79 variables assessed at age 10 were the most important predictors of adolescent mental health at ages 13 and 17. These models were examined in a sample of 1176 families with adolescents from nine nations. Machine learning models accurately classified 78% of adolescents who were above-median in age 13 internalizing behavior, 77.3% who were above-median in age 13 externalizing behavior, 73.2% who were above-median in age 17 externalizing behavior, and 60.6% who were above-median in age 17 internalizing behavior. Age 10 measures of youth externalizing and internalizing behavior were the most important predictors of age 13 and 17 externalizing/internalizing behavior, followed by family context variables, parenting behaviors, individual child characteristics, and finally neighborhood and cultural variables. The combination of theoretical and machine-learning models strengthens both approaches and accurately predicts which adolescents demonstrate above average mental health difficulties in approximately 7 of 10 adolescents 3-7 years after the data used in machine learning models were collected.

Parenting, Adolescent Sensation Seeking, and Subsequent Substance Use: Moderation by Adolescent Temperament.

Although previous research has identified links between parenting and adolescent substance use, little is known about the role of adolescent individual processes, such as sensation seeking, and temperamental tendencies for such links. To test tenets from biopsychosocial models of adolescent risk behavior and differential susceptibility theory, this study investigated longitudinal associations among positive and harsh parenting, adolescent sensation seeking, and substance use and tested whether the indirect associations were moderated by adolescent temperament, including activation control, frustration, sadness, and positive emotions. Longitudinal data reported by adolescents (n = 892; 49.66% girls) and their mothers from eight cultural groups when adolescents were ages 12, 13, and 14 were used. A moderated mediation model showed that parenting was related to adolescent substance use, both directly and indirectly, through sensation seeking. Indirect associations were moderated by adolescent temperament. This study advances understanding of the developmental paths between the contextual and individual factors critical for adolescent substance use across a wide range of cultural contexts.

Parental Happiness Socialization and Youth Adjustment in Italy and Azerbaijan in the COVID-19 Pandemic Era.

This study aims to cross-culturally identify the parental socialization strategies in response to a child's happiness and their associations with youth academic and socio-emotional adjustment, controlling for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were a convenient sample of Italian (N = 606, 81.9% mothers) and Azerbaijanis (N = 227, 61.4% mothers) parents of youths (Mage = 12.89, SD = 4.06; 51% girls). Parents filled out an online survey to assess their socialization strategies in response to their children's happiness, their children's negative emotion regulation and dysregulation, academic performance, and prosocial behavior. Exploratory factorial analysis showed the presence of two factors that enclosed supportive and unsupportive parental socialization strategies. A multiple-group path analysis model showed that similarly across countries, supportive parental strategies were positively related to youths' prosocial behavior and that unsupportive parental strategies were positively related to youths' negative emotion dysregulation, and negatively related to youths' academic performance and negative emotion regulation. Those results emerged controlling for parents' and adolescents' gender and age, parents' educational level, social desirability, and Covid-related problems. This study advances cross-cultural knowledge about the impact of the strategies that parents use to socialize their children's happiness in the unique context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pre-pandemic psychological and behavioral predictors of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in nine countries.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents (N = 1,330; Mages = 15 and 16; 50% female), mothers, and fathers from nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, United States) reported on adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems, adolescents completed a lab-based task to assess tendency for risk-taking, and adolescents reported on their well-being. During the pandemic, participants (Mage = 20) reported on changes in their internalizing, externalizing, and substance use compared to before the pandemic. Across countries, adolescents' internalizing problems pre-pandemic predicted increased internalizing during the pandemic, and poorer well-being pre-pandemic predicted increased externalizing and substance use during the pandemic. Other relations varied across countries, and some were moderated by confidence in the government's handling of the pandemic, gender, and parents' education.

The Intergenerational Transmission of Maladaptive Parenting and its Impact on Child Mental Health: Examining Cross-Cultural Mediating Pathways and Moderating Protective Factors.

Using a sample of 1338 families from 12 cultural groups in 9 nations, we examined whether retrospectively remembered Generation 1 (G1) parent rejecting behaviors were passed to Generation 2 (G2 parents), whether such intergenerational transmission led to higher Generation 3 (G3 child) externalizing and internalizing behavior at age 13, and whether such intergenerational transmission could be interrupted by parent participation in parenting programs or family income increases of > 5%. Utilizing structural equation modeling, we found that the intergenerational transmission of parent rejection that is linked with higher child externalizing and internalizing problems occurs across cultural contexts. However, the magnitude of transmission is greater in cultures with higher normative levels of parent rejection. Parenting program participation broke this intergenerational cycle in fathers from cultures high in normative parent rejection. Income increases appear to break this intergenerational cycle in mothers from most cultures, regardless of normative levels of parent rejection. These results tentatively suggest that bolstering protective factors such as parenting program participation, income supplementation, and (in cultures high in normative parent rejection) legislative changes and other population-wide positive parenting information campaigns aimed at changing cultural parenting norms may be effective in breaking intergenerational cycles of maladaptive parenting and improving child mental health across multiple generations.

A Longitudinal Examination of the Family Stress Model of Economic Hardship in Seven Countries.

The Family Stress Model of Economic Hardship (FSM) posits that economic situations create differences in psychosocial outcomes for parents and developmental outcomes for their adolescent children. However, prior studies guided by the FSM have been mostly in high-income countries and have included only mother report or have not disaggregated mother and father report. Our focal research questions were whether the indirect effect of economic hardship on adolescent mental health was mediated by economic pressure, parental depression, dysfunctional dyadic coping, and parenting, and whether these relations differed by culture and mother versus father report. We conducted multiple group serial mediation path models using longitudinal data from adolescents ages 12-15 in 2008-2012 from 1,082 families in 10 cultural groups in seven countries (Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States). Taken together, the indirect effect findings suggest partial support for the FSM in most cultural groups across study countries. We found associations among economic hardship, parental depression, parenting, and adolescent internalizing and externalizing. Findings support polices and interventions aimed at disrupting each path in the model to mitigate the effects of economic hardship on parental depression, harsh parenting, and adolescents' externalizing and internalizing problems.

Positive parenting, adolescent adjustment, and quality of adolescent diet in nine countries.

INTRODUCTION: We sought to understand the relation between positive parenting and adolescent diet, whether adolescents' internalizing and externalizing behaviors mediate relations between positive parenting and adolescent diet, and whether the same associations hold for both boys and girls and across cultural groups. METHODS: Adolescents (N = 1334) in 12 cultural groups in nine countries were followed longitudinally from age 12 to 15. We estimated two sets of multiple group structural equation models, one by gender and one by cultural group. RESULTS: Modeling by gender, our findings suggest a direct effect of positive parenting at age 12 on a higher quality diet at age 15 for males (ß = .140; 95% CI: 0.057, 0.229), but an indirect effect of positive parenting at age 12 on a higher quality diet at age 15 by decreasing externalizing behaviors at age 14 for females (ß = .011; 95% CI: 0.002, 0.029). Modeling by cultural group, we found no significant direct effect of positive parenting at age 12 on the quality of adolescent diet at age 15. There was a significant negative effect of positive parenting at age 12 on internalizing (ß = -.065; 95% CI: -0.119, -0.009) and externalizing at age 14 (ß = -.033; 95% CI: -0.086, -0.018). CONCLUSIONS: We founder gender differences in the relations among positive parenting, adolescents' externalizing and internalizing behaviors, and adolescent diet. Our findings indicate that quality of parenting is important not only in promoting adolescent mental health but potentially also in promoting the quality of adolescents' diet.

Compliance with Health Recommendations and Vaccine Hesitancy During the COVID Pandemic in Nine Countries.

Longitudinal data from the Parenting Across Cultures study of children, mothers, and fathers in 12 cultural groups in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the USA; N = 1331 families) were used to understand predictors of compliance with COVID-19 mitigation strategies and vaccine hesitancy. Confidence in government responses to the COVID pandemic was also examined as a potential moderator of links between pre-COVID risk factors and compliance with COVID mitigation strategies and vaccine hesitancy. Greater confidence in government responses to the COVID pandemic was associated with greater compliance with COVID mitigation strategies and less vaccine hesitancy across cultures and reporters. Pre-COVID financial strain and family stress were less consistent predictors of compliance with COVID mitigation strategies and vaccine hesitancy than confidence in government responses to the pandemic. Findings suggest the importance of bolstering confidence in government responses to future human ecosystem disruptions, perhaps through consistent, clear, non-partisan messaging and transparency in acknowledging limitations and admitting mistakes to inspire compliance with government and public health recommendations.

Negative Parenting, Adolescents' Emotion Regulation, Self-Efficacy in Emotion Regulation, and Psychological Adjustment.

This study examines associations between parents' rejection and control, adolescents' self-efficacy in their regulation of negative emotions, and maladjustment. Path analyses were employed to test (a) whether adolescents' dysregulation and self-efficacy regarding anger/sadness regulation mediate the relationship between parental rejection/control and adolescent maladjustment; (b) whether adolescent adjustment mediates the association between parental rejection/control and dysregulation and self-efficacy regarding anger/sadness regulation. Participants included 103 Italian adolescents (Time 1: M age = 15.57; 53% male), their mothers (n = 103), and their fathers (n = 79). Follow up data were assessed one year later (Time 2). At Time 1, adolescent reports of the frequency of mothers' and fathers' rejection and control were examined. At Time 2, adolescent-reports of their beliefs about self-efficacy in regulating anger and sadness, as well as anger and sadness dysregulation, were assessed by two methods: questionnaire and mobile ecological momentary assessment. At Time 2, mothers', fathers', and adolescents' reports of adolescents' aggressive behaviors and depressive problems were also assessed. Maternal rejection was associated with higher one year later aggressive problems, which in turn were associated with higher dysregulation of sadness, and lower self-efficacy in dealing with both anger and sadness. In addition, maternal rejection was associated with higher depressive symptoms one year later, which in turn were associated with lower self-efficacy in dealing with sadness and higher dysregulation of both anger and sadness. Finally, maternal control was associated with higher depressive symptoms, whereas paternal control was associated with lower depressive symptoms.

Development of internalizing symptoms during adolescence in three countries: the role of temperament and parenting behaviors.

This longitudinal study examined the unique and joint effects of early adolescent temperament and parenting in predicting the development of adolescent internalizing symptoms in a cross-cultural sample. Participants were 544 early adolescents (T1: Mage = 12.58; 49.5% female) and their mothers (n = 530) from Medellín, Colombia (n = 88), Naples, Italy (n = 90), Rome, Italy (n = 100) and Durham, North Carolina, United States (African Americans n = 92, European Americans n = 97, and Latinx n = 77). Early adolescent negative emotionality (i.e., anger and sadness experience), self-regulation (i.e., effortful control), and parent monitoring and psychological control were measured at T1. Adolescent internalizing symptoms were measured at three time points. Latent Growth Curve Modeling (LGCM) without covariates or predictors indicated a slight linear increase in internalizing symptoms from ages 13-16 years across nearly all cultural groups. Multi-group LGCMs demonstrated several paths were consistently invariant across groups when examining how well temperament and parenting predicted intercept and slope factors. Higher initial levels of internalizing symptoms were significantly predicted by higher adolescent negative emotionality and parental psychological control as well as lower adolescent effortful control and parental monitoring measured one year earlier. Overall, adolescent effortful control appeared to protect against the emergence of internalizing symptoms in all cultures, but this effect faded over time. This study advances knowledge of the normative development of internalizing symptoms during adolescence across cultures while highlighting the predictive value of early adolescent temperament and parenting.

Change in Caregivers' Attitudes and Use of Corporal Punishment Following a Legal Ban: A Multi-Country Longitudinal Comparison.

We examined whether a policy banning corporal punishment enacted in Kenya in 2010 is associated with changes in Kenyan caregivers' use of corporal punishment and beliefs in its effectiveness and normativeness, and compared to caregivers in six countries without bans in the same period. Using a longitudinal study with six waves of panel data (2008-2016), mothers (N = 1086) in Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Thailand, and United States reported household use of corporal punishment and beliefs about its effectiveness and normativeness. Random intercept models and multi-group piecewise growth curve models indicated that the proportion of corporal punishment behaviors used by the Kenyan caregivers decreased post-ban at a significantly different rate compared to the caregivers in other countries in the same period. Beliefs of effectiveness of corporal punishment were declining among the caregivers in all sites, whereas the Kenyan mothers reported increasing perceptions of normativeness of corporal punishment post-ban, different from the other sites. While other contributing factors cannot be ruled out, our natural experiment suggests that corporal punishment decreased after a national ban, a shift that was not evident in sites without bans in the same period.