Corporal Punishment Is Uniquely Associated With a Greater Neural Response to Errors and Blunted Neural Response to Rewards in Adolescence

Abstract

Background: Although corporal punishment is a common form of punishment with known negative impacts on health and behavior, how such punishment affects neurocognitive systems is relatively unknown. Methods: To address this issue, we examined how corporal punishment affected neural measures of error and reward processing in 149 adolescent boys and girls of ages 11 to 14 years (mean age [SD] = 11.02 [1.16]). Corporal punishment experienced over the lifetime was assessed using the Stress and Adversity Inventory. In addition, participants completed a flankers task and a reward task to measure the error-related negativity and reward positivity, respectively, as well as measures of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Results: As hypothesized, participants who experienced lifetime corporal punishment reported more anxiety and depressive symptoms. Experiencing corporal punishment was also related to a larger error-related negativity and blunted reward positivity. Importantly, corporal punishment was independently related to a larger error-related negativity and a more blunted reward positivity beyond the impact of harsh parenting and lifetime stressors. Conclusions: Corporal punishment appears to potentiate neural response to errors and decrease neural response to rewards, which could increase risk for anxiety and depressive symptoms.