Elizabeth T. Gershoff’s research while affiliated with University of Texas at Austin and other places

What is this page?


This page lists works of an author who doesn't have a ResearchGate profile or hasn't added the works to their profile yet. It is automatically generated from public (personal) data to further our legitimate goal of comprehensive and accurate scientific recordkeeping. If you are this author and want this page removed, please let us know.

Publications (158)


Spare the Dog, Hit the Child: Preliminary Findings Regarding Parents’ Beliefs About Spanking and Hitting Children
  • Article
  • Publisher preview available

August 2024

·

112 Reads

Psychology of Violence

Elizabeth T. Gershoff

·

·

·

[...]

·

Objective: The goal of this study was to determine if parents view spanking as a form of hitting and view hitting children as more acceptable than hitting other family members, including dogs. Method: Parents of children 0–8 years of age from across the United States (N = 286; 85% White; 56% women) were recruited through Prolific to participate in an online survey. Results: Although 90% of parents agreed with a definition of spanking that included the word “hitting” and 33% used the term “hitting” in their definitions of spanking, parents also rated spanking as less severe than hitting. The percentage of participants who agreed that it is acceptable for parents to hit children (30%) was significantly higher than the percentage that reported it was acceptable to hit other family members (dog, 17%; wife, 1%; parent with Alzheimer’s, 0%; Tukey tests, p < .001). Nearly a third of parents reported that completing the survey had changed their beliefs about spanking. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that American parents hold inconsistent beliefs about hitting children, including a judgment that it is more acceptable to hit a child than to hit a dog. These results exemplify the need for systemic parent education and policy interventions to bring children’s human rights to live free from family violence in line with the recognized rights of adults.

View access options

Keeping it Together: Measuring Childhood Self-Control Through Daily Increases in Activity (DIA)

July 2024

·

8 Reads

Research on children’s self-control has generally relied on parent and teacher ratings, which are subject to well-known biases and obscure daily within-person variability. We developed and validated a novel, objective measure of childhood self-control using actigraphy data. Daily Increases in Activity (DIA) scores were theorized to reflect a school-age child’s inability to maintain control of their physical activity throughout the day. In a national sample of children followed from birth to age 26 (N = 747), children with higher DIA scores were rated as more impulsive and disruptive by their teachers and classroom observers, were less successful academically in high school (β = -0.11), and had completed less education as adults (β = -0.05). DIA was unrelated to children’s family income and race/ethnicity. Actigraphy provides an objective, naturalistic, and scalable way to observe individual differences in children’s self-control by leveraging within-person variability across the school day.


Leveraging an intensive time series of young children's movement to capture impulsive and inattentive behaviors in a preschool setting

April 2024

·

12 Reads

Child Development

Studying within‐person variability in children's behavior is frequently hindered by challenges collecting repeated observations. This study used wearable accelerometers to collect an intensive time series (2.7 million observations) of young children's movement at school ( N = 62, M age = 4.5 years, 54% male, 74% Non‐Hispanic White) in 2021. Machine learning analyses indicated that children's typical forward acceleration was strongly correlated with lower teacher‐reported inhibitory control and attention ( r = −.69). Using forward movement intensity as a proxy for impulsivity, we partitioned the intensive time series and found that (1) children modulated their behavior across periods of the school day, (2) children's impulsivity increased across the school week, and (3) children with greater impulsivity showed greater variability in behavior across days.


Levels of support for legislative bans to end physical punishment in schools and homes in a national sample

July 2023

·

27 Reads

Public Health

Objectives: Physical punishment of children remains quite common and yet has only negative effects on children's health, making it an important public health problem. This study was designed to assess positive attitudes about and perceived normative support for the use of physical punishment with children, as well as attitudes regarding prohibition of physical punishment in homes and schools. Study design: This was a cross-sectional national survey of a diverse sample of US adults (N = 3049). Methods: This survey, conducted in Fall 2020, assessed attitudes and perceived norms regarding physical punishment use using continuous measures as well as support and perceived support for policies prohibiting physical punishment in homes and schools in the United States. Results: Respondents who had positive attitudes toward physical punishment (39%) and who perceived normative support for physical punishment (41%) were not in the majority. While 65% agreed that there should be a federal ban on physical punishment in public schools, only 18% perceived that most US adults would support such a ban. Persons who were older (aged ≥55 years), men, living in the southern United States, or who themselves were hit more frequently as children were significantly less likely than their counterparts to support a federal ban in schools. Conclusions: Based on a national sample, there is strong support for a federal ban on physical punishment in US schools; yet this normative belief is unrecognized. Social norms campaigns should capitalize on this pluralistic ignorance to increase mobilization toward policy reform and reduction of harm to children through bans of physical punishment in public schools.


Parents' coping behaviors and mental health during the COVID ‐19 pandemic

July 2023

·

74 Reads

·

3 Citations

Family Relations

Objective To understand how parents of young children coped with stress during the first year of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Background Families with young children faced substantial stress during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Yet, relatively few studies have examined parents' mental health during the pandemic and the behaviors parents have used to cope with their stress. Method The current study surveyed 199 parents (76% women, M age = 33 years) of children aged 2 to 4 years from across the United States between September and December 2020 about their COVID‐related stress and coping behaviors since stay‐at‐home orders began in March 2020. Results The coping behavior that parents most commonly endorsed was spending time with their children, a strategy that frequently made parents feel better. Successful coping (engaging in behaviors that made parents feel better) was positively associated with better mental health, regardless of parents' COVID‐related stress. Distraction and unsuccessful coping were not significantly associated with parents' mental health as a main effect. However, parents who engaged in more unsuccessful coping under conditions of high COVID‐related stress reported greater symptoms of anxiety and depression. Conclusion Although the COVID‐19 pandemic presented novel stressors for parents, it also presented new opportunities to spend time with family, which may have helped parents cope with the stress of the pandemic. Implications Young children may be considered an asset in the family system that prompts parents to engage in activities that make them feel better.


Figure 1
Regression Estimates for Attention and Behavior Problems Predicting Adult Outcomes Across Dunedin, SECCYD, and NCDS Studies Dunedin (age 32, New Zealand; Moffitt et al., 2011) SECCYD (age 26, U.S., N = 1,168) NCDS (age 42, U.K., N = 16,506)
Regression Estimates for Attention and Behavior Problems During Discrete Developmental Periods Predicting Adult Outcomes SECCYD (Age 26, U.S., N = 1,168) NCDS (Age 42, U.K., N = 16,506)
Attention and Behavior Problems in Childhood Predict Adult Financial Status, Health, and Criminal Activity: A Conceptual Replication and Extension of Using Cohorts From the United States and the United Kingdom

June 2023

·

337 Reads

·

11 Citations

Developmental Psychology

This study is a conceptual replication of a widely cited study by Moffitt et al. (2011) which found that attention and behavior problems in childhood (a composite of impulsive hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive-aggressive behaviors labeled “self-control”) predicted adult financial status, health, and criminal activity. Using data from longitudinal cohort studies in the United States (n = 1,168) and the United Kingdom (n = 16,506), we largely reproduced their pattern of findings that attention and behavior problems measured across the course of childhood predicted a range of adult outcomes including educational attainment (βU.S. = −0.22, βU.K. = −0.13) and spending time in jail (ORU.S. = 1.74, ORU.K. = 1.48). We found that associations with outcomes in education, work, and finances diminished in the presence of additional covariates for children’s home environment and achievement but associations for other outcomes were more robust. We also found that attention and behavior problems across distinct periods of childhood were associated with adult outcomes. Specific attention and behavior problems showed some differences in predicting outcomes in the U.S. cohort, with attention problems predicting lower educational attainment and hyperactivity/impulsivity predicting ever spending time in jail. Together with the findings from Moffitt et al., our study makes clear that childhood attention and behavior problems are associated with a range of outcomes in adulthood for cohorts born in the 1950s, 1970s, and 1990s across three countries.


Family Formation History and the Psychological Well-Being of Women from Diverse Racial-Ethnic Groups

March 2023

·

24 Reads

·

2 Citations

Journal of Health and Social Behavior

Studying disparities in psychological well-being across diverse groups of women can illuminate the racialized health risks of gendered family life. Integrating life course and demand-reward perspectives, this study applied sequencing techniques to the National Longitudinal Study of Youth: 1979 to reveal seven trajectories of partnership and parenthood through women's 20s and 30s, including several in which parenthood followed partnership at different ages and with varying numbers of children and others characterized by nonmarital fertility or eschewing such roles altogether. These sequences differentiated positive and negative dimensions of women's well-being in their 50s. Women who inhabited any family role had greater life satisfaction and fewer depressive symptoms, although these general patterns differed by race-ethnicity. Family roles were more closely related to well-being than ill-being for White women, parenthood had more pronounced importance across outcomes for Black women, and the coupling of partnership and parenthood generally mattered more for Latinas.



Attention and Behavior Problems in Childhood Predict Adult Financial Status, Health, and Criminal Activity: A Conceptual Replication and Extension of Moffitt et al. (2011) Using Cohorts from the U.S. and the U.K.

February 2023

·

63 Reads

This study is a conceptual replication of a widely-cited study by Moffit and colleagues (2011) which found that attention and behavior problems in childhood (a composite of impulsive hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive-aggressive behaviors labeled “self-control”) predicted adult financial status, health, and criminal activity. Using data from longitudinal cohort studies in the U.S. (n = 1,168) and the U.K. (n = 16,506), we largely reproduced their pattern of findings that attention and behavior problems measured across the course of childhood predicted a range of adult outcomes including educational attainment (βU.S. = -.22, βU.K. = -.13) and spending time in jail (ORU.S. = 1.74, ORU.K. = 1.48). We found that associations with outcomes in education, work, and finances diminished in the presence of additional covariates for children’s home environment and achievement but associations for other outcomes were more robust. We also found that attention and behavior problems across distinct periods of childhood were associated with adult outcomes. Specific attention and behavior problems showed some differences in predicting outcomes in the U.S. cohort, with attention problems predicting lower educational attainment and hyperactivity/impulsivity predicting ever spending time in jail. Together with the findings from Moffitt et al. (2011), our study makes clear that childhood attention and behavior problems are associated with a range of outcomes in adulthood for cohorts born in the 1950s, 1970s, and 1990s across three countries.


Physical punishment and child, adolescent, and adult outcomes in low-and middle-income countries: protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

December 2022

·

174 Reads

·

5 Citations

Systematic Reviews

Background Physical punishment at home and in schools is widespread around the world. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have synthesized evidence, mostly from high-income countries (HICs), showing that physical punishment relates to multiple detrimental individual outcomes. Yet, less work has been done to synthesize the evidence on the association between physical punishment at home and schools and child, adolescent, and adult outcomes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where more than 90% of children live and physical punishment is most socially normative and prevalent. In this manuscript, we present a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis on the characteristics of the research, associations, and variation in associations, between physical punishment at home and in schools and child, adolescent, and adult outcomes in LMICs. Methods We will conduct a review of studies published in peer-reviewed journals using quantitative methods to assess the association between physical punishment in childhood and/or adolescence and individual outcomes in LMICs. We will search for studies in 10 different databases using keywords in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, and Chinese related to physical punishment. We will extract qualitative data from the studies and the statistics needed to transform all study-level effect sizes into standardized mean difference effect sizes. For the analyses, we will employ multi-level meta-analyses to use multiple effect sizes per study and leverage within-study variation as well as between study variation using moderation analysis. Besides the meta-analyses, we will also conduct a narrative synthesis of the findings. Discussion The proposed systematic review and meta-analysis will provide timely evidence to inform global research, policy, and practice on the links between physical punishment and lifelong individual outcomes. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42022347346


Citations (70)


... Caregiving for children and increased conflict in relationships with friends or family were also associated with increased likelihood of problematic cannabis use. Recent studies have reported that helpful strategies used by parents to manage pandemic stress also focused on family and friends, such as spending time with children, doing family activities, and spending time with friends and family virtually (Adams et al. 2021;Koepp et al. 2023). Public health and policy efforts focused on promoting positive relationships among family and friends would be imperative to address parents' needs for pandemic recovery. ...

Reference:

Parents’ COVID-19 stressors and associations with self-rated health, symptoms of mental health problems, and substance use: a cross-sectional study
Parents' coping behaviors and mental health during the COVID ‐19 pandemic
  • Citing Article
  • July 2023

Family Relations

... The psychological underpinnings of this relationship are complex. Studies by Moffitt et al. [41], replicated across various populations, including American and British samples [42], indicate that attention deficits are primarily associated with educational difficulties, while impulsivity and hyperactivity increase the likelihood of engaging in conflicts with the law. Moreover, as noted by the authors of both studies, the functioning of individuals with ADHD is significantly influenced by factors such as socioeconomic conditions (particularly during childhood), the school environment, and the presence of mature parenting during adolescence. ...

Attention and Behavior Problems in Childhood Predict Adult Financial Status, Health, and Criminal Activity: A Conceptual Replication and Extension of Using Cohorts From the United States and the United Kingdom

Developmental Psychology

... There are many studies in the literature related to PWB and its sub-dimensions: productivity-related personal goals (McAdams & St. Aubin, 1992), altruism and helping behaviour (Batson & Powell, 2003), autonomy (Sheldon & Niemiec, 2006), self-compassion (Neff et al., 2007;Zessin et al., 2015), job demand control (Häusser et al., 2010), social support (Walen & Lachman, 2000), transformational leadership (Arnold et al., 2007), extraversion and neuroticism (DeNeve & Cooper, 1998;Ruini et al., 2003;Vitterso & Nilsen, 2002), age (Blanchflower & Oswald, 2008;Clark & Oswald, 1994;Stone et al., 2010), work and family variables (Parasuraman et al., 1996), physical activity during COVID-19 (Maugeri et al., 2020), physical exercise (Carek et al., 2011;Hassmen et al., 2000;Scully et al., 1998), work-family conflict (Parasuraman & Simmers, 2001), obesity (Wardle & Cooke, 2005), life satisfaction (Markowitz, 1998), gender and ethnicity (Crosnoe et al., 2023), and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (De Kock et al., 2021;Heshmati et al., 2022;Ropret et al., 2023;Wolf & Schmitz, 2023) are considered together with PWB. ...

Family Formation History and the Psychological Well-Being of Women from Diverse Racial-Ethnic Groups
  • Citing Article
  • March 2023

Journal of Health and Social Behavior

... Extreme heat has numerous developmental effects on children, including reducing outdoor play, which is essential to children's physical and mental health. 17 Confinement with reduced physical activity contributes to the increasing global prevalence of childhood obesity, which in turn heightens the risk of heat-related illnesses. Childhood obesity also increases the prevalence of adulthood cardiometabolic diseases, which further increase life course heat vulnerability. ...

Ambient Temperature Increases and Preschoolers' Outdoor Physical Activity
  • Citing Article
  • March 2023

... School discipline aims to set behavioural limits to protect students and teachers from harm and threats, teach students about what is safe and unsafe, and form a positive learning environment (Mason, 2015) There are various school discipline strategies, including traditional practices of physical punishment and alternative strategies (Irby, 2014). Physical punishment, which is commonly associated with corporal punishment (Gershoff, 2017), is intended to eliminate or control unwanted student behaviours by imposing physical disciplinary actions to create discomfort, such as pinching and hitting, as well as verbal reprimands (Cuartas et al., 2022). ...

Physical punishment and child, adolescent, and adult outcomes in low-and middle-income countries: protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Systematic Reviews

... Finally, outdoor play may be cognitively beneficial because it tends to be unstructured and therefore less behaviourally controlled. A recent study, for example, showed that after engaging in 60 min of unstructured outdoor play, preschool-aged children demonstrated improved attentional control in the classroom compared to when they engaged in 60 min of indoor play (Koepp et al. 2022). According to the authors of the study, this may be because indoor play environments require children to exert more control over their behaviour, which can be taxing on their executive functions. ...

Preschoolers’ Executive Functions Following Indoor and Outdoor Free Play
  • Citing Article
  • July 2022

Trends in Neuroscience and Education

... A consensus is reached among students, parents, and teachers that it is crucial for parents to participate in their children's education [1]. A growing body of research has demonstrated that parental involvement is crucial for improving students' academic performance [2], including achievements in academic [3][4][5][6], reading and math [7], and science [8]. Previous studies have also revealed that parental involvement positively influences students' non-academic outcomes, including enhanced social skills and functioning [1,9], increased creative self-efficacy [10], improved language abilities [11], greater life satisfaction [12], fewer depressive symptoms [13], and higher well-being [14]. ...

Parent involvement and children's academic achievement: Evidence from a census of public school students in Brazil
  • Citing Article
  • June 2022

Child Development

... R esults of studies from around the globe confirm two important and conflicting things about children's play. First, play positively influences health and wellbeing, and, second, most children in the modern era do not get enough play to reap the rewards it could offer (Brussoni et al., 2012;Genius of Play, 2017;Gleave & Cole-Hamilton, 2012;Koepp et al., 2022;Lee et al., 2021;Mader, 2021Mader, , 2022Sando et al., 2021;Singer et al., 2009;Storli & Sandseter, 2019;Yogman et al., 2018). This situation has led national and global public health organizations to call for an increased emphasis on the provision of time, space, and toys for play (Alliance for Childhood, 2010;Canadian Public Health Association, 2019;Tremblay et al., 2015;World Health Organization, 2019). ...

Total Play Time Needed for Preschoolers to Reach Recommended Amount of Non-Sedentary Activity

... If this is the case, our study would provide evidence that students' EF-related behaviors in the classroom matter more for teacher-student conflict than students' EFs measured on abstract, non-emotional computer tasks. Prior studies have demonstrated that behavioral regulation and cognitive regulation are related, but distinct constructs (Koepp et al., 2022;Modrek & Ramirez, 2021). While both are critical for children's school success Dekker et al., 2017), it is possible that behavioral regulation skills are more salient to teachers, since they are easier to observe (McCoy, 2019). ...

Measuring children's behavioral regulation in the preschool classroom: An objective, sensor‐based approach
  • Citing Article
  • December 2021

Developmental Science

... Some anthropometric measures were usually used to evaluate the risk of cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome [10][11][12][13][14]. By combining these anthropometric measures with biochemical measures, some novel lipid indicators can be established. ...

Patterns of Childhood Body Mass Index Percentile Gains as Predictors of Adolescent Body Mass Index, Waist Circumference, and Blood Pressure
  • Citing Article
  • December 2021

Academic Pediatrics