re: Do You Agree Corporal Punishment (Spanking) Is Barbaric When You Think About It?

quote:

---

Nevertheless, some studies have been done. In one set of analyses with young children in the laboratory, time outs worked just as well as spanking for (immediate) subsequent compliance on 30 tasks assigned by the mother. Long-term compliance is decreased after spanking (Gershoff, 2002; Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, 2013).

In terms of whether parental aggression (spanking) decreases aggression in the child, the answer is no. In fact, spanking tends to increase child aggression. “Spanking predicted increases in children’s aggression over and above initial levels [of aggressive behavior]” and “in none of these longitudinal studies did spanking predict reductions in children’s aggression over time” (p. 134). Instead, spanking predicted increases in children’s aggression. 

Why is spanking ineffective for changing behavior in the longterm? 

Approaching this from a behaviorist perspective, conditioning by punishment(pain) requires that the consequence always occur immediately after every instance. When you touch a hot stove with a bare hand, you get burned, period. This does not occur with the behaviors parents spank for—parents are often not around to see them or are not willing or able to spank immediately afterwards.

Why is spanking ineffective for increasing desirable behavior?

Spanking does not convey positive guidance on how to behave in a particular situation, only how not to behave if a threat of punishment is at hand. Children learn positive behaviors from practicing actions that work, ones that lead to a sense of belonging and competence. They internalize what they practice and what their family practices. They learn reasons for their actions from what they hear and are told, but active practice has the deepest impact.

Why else is spanking harmful?

It undermines trust. Children trust their parents just a little less. They are more likely to step back from the relationship and build a self-protective shield around themselves in terms of relationships generally. Children can learn to mistrust the motives of others and become more threat reactive in social situations. It can lead to aggressive expectations—they are ready to aggress first before they are aggressed against.

Spanking is harmful for even more reasons, the review indicates:

Spanking destroys mental health.Spanking increases delinquency and criminal behavior.Spanking makes it more likely the child will be physically abused

---

quote:

---

Imaging studies have also shown some important changes in the brains of children who were punished physically. Decreases in the gray matter of the brain have been seen in regions connected to IQ. And the dopamine system that plays a role in drug addiction risk is altered in kids who were the subjects of physical punishment.

Luckily, studies have also shown that when parents are given help to stop physically punishing their kids, theirkids' difficult behaviors also decrease. This suggests that not only is there a cause-and-effect relationship between parents' use of physical punishment and negative behaviors in kids, but that once parents stop using this form of discipline, kids' behaviors actually improve.

The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend the use of physical punishment on kids, since they say it is "the least effective way to discipline." More effective and healthier methods of discipline include timeouts, logical consequences, or behavior penalties. See the AAP website for recommendations on the best ways discourage bad behaviors in your kids and encourage the good ones.

---