Abstract
The current study examined mediation models to explain differences in sex and ethnicity in retrospective reports of parental physically abusive behavior for Asian, African, Latino, and White American college students. In addition, relationships between parenting styles, mother and father authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting and parent disciplining methods, nonviolent discipline, psychological aggression, and four corporal punishment items were explored. One corporal punishment item, shaking, partially mediated the relationship between ethnicity and reports of physically abusive behavior.