This study developed and compared several mediated and direct-effects models proposed to link well-established correlates of physical child abuse to excessively punitive parenting in a population-based sample of 206 families recruited from high-risk areas of a medium-sized metropolitan area. Parents were classified as exhibiting excessively punitive parenting based on home observations and parent reports of the use of physical punishment strategies other than spanking. We hypothesized that the levels of child coerciveness, parent irritability, and family stress would be mediated by disruptions in parent discipline in predicting excessively punitive parenting toward the child. Structural equation methodology was employed to test the hypothesized and alternative models. Results consistently supported the powerful mediational role of discipline in the hypothesized model over alternative models that posited separate, direct effects of child coerciveness, parent irritability, and parent stress on excessively punitive parenting behavior. Results are discussed in terms of the need for further examination of parenting behavior, as well as parents' perceptions of and affective reactions to parent-child interactions in the occurrence of physical abuse. Aggr. Behav. 23:259-280, 1997.