Spanking, defined as the use of physical force in punishing children, takes many forms such as canning, belting or smacking. It has however received opposition from humanitarians and activists. However, research in different countries on parent’s perception of the same has yielded surprising results with the majority arguing that sometimes it is necessary to spank the children. The most notable countries have been the US, China, India, and Europe, US parents leading with 70 percent in agreement. International bodies such as AACAP and the APA have issued a complete banning of the act.
However, some within the bodies have agreed to this form of discipline arguing that it is benefiting. This claim has however yielded inconclusive results. On the other hand, psychologists have issued a different response by stating that a child who is not beaten will have a developmental problem. They argue that research has proven the claim with results indicating that out of 11 children under study only one had positive behavior while the rest developed negative character. However, this research has since been disapproved. Spanking has been associated with several adverse effects.
The main ones include making the kid more aggressive and that there have been no long-term positive effects from the act on children. Other negative implications are that research has proven that it makes the child develop a bully character and that it has been proven to alter a child’s brain. From the findings, it is widely accepted that spanking is wrong because it affects a child’s development. Parents should seek alternative forms of punishment towards their children. However, because of the divisions on the topic, parents need to decide the punishment that works best because different societies have varied views on the matter. Corporal Punishment of Children (Spanking) Introduction Corporal punishment can be defined as a form of physical force used towards children to discipline or control their behavior in a given situation. It is generally a deliberate use of physical punishment against a bad behavior or crime committed by children.
There are many forms of physical punishment that include caning, paddling, smacking, belting or spanking of the minors by an adult, parent or teachers (Bernadette Saunders). With the growth and evelopment of humanitarian movements and propagation of human laws, act of corporal punishment is considered to be inhumane, barbaric by most of the activists. In almost 37 countries, around the globe, corporal punishment is considered as a legal offence for a parent, teacher or someone else who is involved in physically hurting a child especially spanking. Around 113 countries, it is prohibited for a school or college to physically hurt a student or a young one. Yet, in almost all of North America, corporal punishment to a certain extent is acceptable as long as it lead to a positive behavior and development of the child.
Some even promote it, as they believe it is an important part of disciplining the child. International picture of Corporal Punishment Although organizations like AACAP and APA continue to eradicate the use of spanking on children, it is interesting that during a study conducted in America, as much as 70% of respondents said that “it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good, hard spanking. ” The issue is certainly not restricted to America or the Western countries.
In China, almost 50-60% of parents reported using of mild corporal punishment in a one month period. Its neighboring country, India, had the same issue. In India, almost 65% of the parents accepted that they had hit their children. Now moving towards to Europe, almost 41. 6% of parents in England physically punished or hit their child in a one year period (Reeves). Psychiatrists/Sociologists view on Corporal Punishment Over the last couple of decade, psychiatrists or the sociological researchers have invested a lot of their time in the study of corporal punishment for children.
Against the belief of very few, psychiatrists and sociologists have showed their discontent towards the use of physical punishment for the young ones. Most of them have suggested for a complete ban of corporal punishment at every level i. e. early age, parents interaction and school life etc. According to the Dr. Peter Newell, coordinator of EPOCH (End Punishment of Children), all the people have right to protect their personal or physical integrity, and children or the young ones are people too (Hunt).
On the other side, some also believe that spanking or any other form of corporal punishment has its benefits too. In the year of 2010, a study was conducted that found out that the children who were spanked to discipline by their elders turned out to be more successful than children of the same age at their school or college. However, the study was not taken into much serious consideration as the sample size was very low and it is termed as an unpublished outlier by some.
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry strictly prohibits the use of physical punishment on children. According to (AACAP), extensive researches have been conducted on the topic and results point towards a basic fact that although corporal punishment can yield immediate positive behaviors from the children but in the long-run it becomes the root cause to increased aggression and lower moral internalization of the appropriate behaviors.
Moreover, other negative outcomes that are associated with corporal punishment are as follows: •Increasing risk of physical abuse. Learning through experience that aggression is one of the acceptable problem solving techniques. •Experiencing emotional and physical pain, leads to decrease in learning capacity for children. •Children that have suffered physical punishments are less likely to learn why a particular behavior or action is wrong or unacceptable. •Tendency of behaving out of fear rather than a positive underlying intent. Psychologists view on Corporal Punishment Corporal punishment still remains a widely used practice among families around the globe.
Many psychologists have done research on the topic and most of them point towards avoiding it as it can seriously affect the personality of the children growing up. The research done by psychologist, Dr. Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff of Columbia University, is of great importance for the subject. Her research was done on a greater level of study. She did a large scale, meta-analysis study of about 88 studies on the topic and drew relations between the positive and negative behaviors and corporal punishment. Her study included the data collection of about 62 years.
Dr. Gershoff was able to identify and find ‘strong associations’ between 11 child behaviors and corporal punishment. Out of 11 behaviors and experiences, 10 are negative behaviors while the only positive behavior was immediate response and compliance. The negative behaviors include child aggression, antisocial behaviors and more. In the commentary that was published with Dr. Gershoff’s study, Dr. George W. Holden of University of Texas said, “reflect the growing body of evidence indicating that corporal punishment does no good and may even cause harm”.
Holden also suggested that the psychological community should not advocate spanking as a discipline tool that could be used by parents. In another reply to Gershoff’s study, Dr. Diana Baumring of University of CA at Berkeley wrote that due to the fact that Gershoff’s study included the episodes of excessive and extreme physical punishments, the findings of Gershoff’s study is not a proper evaluation of the normative corporal punishment (American Psychological Association).
The negative effects of Corporal Punishment on Children Following are some of the most discussed negative impacts of corporal punishment: Physical punishment on children can make them more aggressive. Researchers from the Tulane University reached to a conclusion after researches that children who are spanked at the age of 3 turn out to be more aggressive at the age of 5 as compared to those who did not get spanked. •Physical has no positive impact in the long-run.
Dr. Sandra Graham-Bermann believes that spanking can stop the problematic behavior for some time but that is because the child is afraid at that time. In the long run, behavior of the child will only get worse. Sarah Kovac, from CNN, wrote on the study of corporal punishment, she said, “The sad irony is that the more you physically punish your kids for their lack of self-control, the less they have.
They learn how to be controlled by external forces (parents, teachers, bosses), but when the boss isn’t looking, then what? Physical punishment promotes the young ones to continue this bizarre cycle of abuse A study by the Child Abuse and Neglect, published in 2011, confirmed with research that children who are subjected to physical punishment are more likely to use the same course of action to solve their problems as compared to those who were not subjected to physical punishment. According to Dr. Gershoff, these children are also at a higher risk for delinquency and adopting criminal behaviors. •Spanking can alter the kids’ brain.
A study conducted in 2009 explained that children who were spanked at least once a month for over 3 years period had lower amount of grey matter in prefrontal cortex which is linked to addiction, depression and other types of mental disorder. According to CNN, children who receive corporal punishment have lower cognitive abilities as compared to those who are not subjected to any physical punishment (Samakow). Conclusion Using corporal punishment (spanking) might be supported by some and opposed by others.
But, the basic problem with this approach is that it has no benefit in the behavior or personality of the person in the long run. Immediate positive response from the child is its major positive point, however, the supporters of spanking also believe that it should be done in limits in the appropriate manner; avoiding the use of any object, or leaving a mark on the body of the child or spanking or paddling children that are below the age of one year or above six years of age. Parents or teachers can always resort to other punishments for the removal of negative behaviors e. g. emoval of the privileges, time-out strategies or other negative punishments.
On the other hand, the risks associated with corporal punishment (spanking) are more intense and long-lasting e. g. loss of confidence, aggressive behaviors, developing negative personality, developing criminal nature, hurting others etc. Spanking can also negatively affect the parent-child relationship. Corporal punishment might be allowed in one society and strictly prohibited in another but, at the end of the day, it is the parents’ and teachers’ decision on how they choose to discipline and influence the behavior of the child.
