The authors investigated the relation between parental reports of punishment administered to their eight-year-old children and the reports of these children obtained ten years later concerning their hypothetical use of punishment on their own children was investigated. The results show that punishment appears to have intergenerational effects and is also related to aggressive behavior of male recipients ten years later. Sociocultural variables and IQ, however, play an overriding role in the long-term analysis. Hypothetically, a lower IQ constricts a child's learning options due, perhaps, to limitations in verbal comprehension and concept formation. Direct, salient behavior, such as punitiveness and aggressiveness, may be easier to learn than the more subtle and wider variety of social behaviors of which brighter children can avail themselves.