Authoritarian ideology, including religious conservativism, endorses obedience to authority
and physical punishment of children. Although this association has been studied at the level
of the family, little research has been conducted on whether conservativism in the broader
community context correlates with the mistreatment of children. The purpose of this study
was to determine whether this relation between conservativism and physical punishment of
children extends to child abuse rates at the community level. Predictors included county …