This ethnocultural research analyzed relationships among perceived parental justness and harshness of corporal punishment, perceived parental acceptance-rejection, and psychological adjustment of Jamaican youths. The research explored two related questions: Are perceived harshness and justness of corporal punishment by themselves associated with variations in youths’ psychological adjustment? Or, is the relationship between parental punishment and youths’ psychological adjustment mediated through youths’ perceptions of parental (maternal and paternal) acceptance or rejection? The research is based on a sample of 97 youths ages 7 through 18 years in Jamaica, West Indies. Results of analyses showed that harshness of parental punishment by itself had little effect on variations in youths’ psychological adjustment. However, the harsher the punishment was perceived to be the more rejected the youths felt. And the more rejected they felt the more impaired their psychological adjustment was reported to be. Perceived justness of punishment was unrelated to variations in youths’ adjustment.
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