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Impact of corporal punishment on children
The bad effect of corporal punishment
The case against corporal punishment
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The term corporal punishment is defined as the use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not injury, "for the purpose of correction or control of the child’s behavior" ("A Report" 18). In America, parents' use of corporal punishment in homes have been defined legally by the states as “encompassing ‘reasonable’ force with some states adding qualifiers that it must also be ‘appropriate’ (AL, AK, AZ, CA, CC), ‘moderate’ (AR, DE, SC, SD), or ‘necessary’ (MT, NH, NY, OR, TX, WI). Three states see the need to clarify that corporal punishment is limited to ‘nondeadly force’ (AK, NY, TX)” (Gershoff, "Corporal" 540). Currently, over 90% of US families report having used corporal punishment as a means of discipline at some time ("Physical"). Parental corporal punishment is usually restricted to physical contact "with an open hand, and to contact on extremities or buttocks", as in spanking, strapping, smacking, beating, or whipping (Remus 22). Behaviors that do cause risk injury (e.g., punching, kicking, burning) are considered physical abuse (Gershoff, "Corporal" 540). Parents punish their children physically for discipline. However, parents' corporal punishment may inadvertently result in child physical abuse administered by their anger. Sometimes they even intended to harm a child. In my opinion, physical abuse can be a potential outcome of corporal punishment. Parents' use of corporal punishment in homes are likely to have few intended positive effects and many unintended negative effects. Besides, hitting children frequently may worsen parent-child relationship as well as children's future character flaw. In this case, corporal punishment of children in homes needs to be outlawed in America.
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"Should Spanking Be Banned?" stophitting. The Center for Effective Discipline. Jun. 2008. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
Straus, Murray A. "Spanking and the Making of a Violent Society". Pediatrics 98.4 (1996) 834-836. Print.
Straus, Murray A., and Glenda Kaufman Kantor. "Corporal Punishment Of Adolescents By Parents: A Risk Factor In The Epidemiology Of Depression.." Adolescence 29.115 (1994): 543. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.
"To Spank or Not to Spank?" stophitting. The Center for Effective Discipline. Jun. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.
Williams, Walter E. " Making a Case for Corporal Punishment." Inside of the News 13 Sep. 1999. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.
Wegner, Paul D. "Discipline In The Book Of Proverbs: 'To Spank Or Not To Spank?'" Jets 48.4 (2005): 715-732. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
Smith states in his introduction “many studies have shown physical punishment — including spanking, hitting and other means of causing pain — can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children.” Throughout the article, many studies show that children do become more aggressive however, there were also studies mentioned that support the use of physical punishment on children between the ages of two and six years old. This does show that his research is thorough however, it still leads to room for error in his broad statement of physical punishment causing harmful effects to
There is a point raised by the author on the article “Spanking children isn’t abusing them” that children in residential schools had horrible and often fatal beatings (2015). Furthermore, while reading “Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviors and experiences: A meta-analytic and theoretical review” Gershoff asserts, “Behaviors that do not result in significant physical injury (e.g., spank, slap) are considered corporal punishment, whereas behav- iors that risk injury (e.g., punching, kicking, burning) are consid- ered physical abuse. ” (2002) As it was stated on the previous point, reasonable force has its limits, and limits the parent and care givers to discipline the child without degrading them or causing physical or psychological harm.
...ery helpful information for people who would like alternatives to spanking. (Project No Spank, 2014) (The Center of Effective Disipline, 2014)
Spanking is an important aspect of a child’s social development and should not be considered an evil form of abuse. In her argument, Debra Saunders says that there is an obvious difference between beating a child and spanking a child, and parents know the boundary. Spanking is the most effective form of discipline when a child knows doing something is wrong, but the child does it anyway. A child who is properly disciplined through spanking is being taught how to control her or his impulses and how to deal with all types of authorities in future environments. Parents can control their child’s future behavior by using spanking in early childhood, because if...
When describing a physical altercation between two adults, the term is assault and battery. Assault on an individual has more than immediate effects; the effects can last a lifetime in severe cases. In all fifty states, it is a crime to hit, strike or use corporal punishment in any deliberate manner towards any person over the age of eighteen. However, this law does not apply to physical force being used on minors. Spanking, whipping, and paddling are among a few common references to this form of punishment. Physically disciplining children has had many names over the years. No matter which term is used, corporal punishment has a negative impact on every party involved. It is a widely used, socially accepted method of discipline. “Approximately 94% of three and four-year old children have been spanked in the past year (Slade & Winssow 1321). Although spanking is a widespread practice, it is becoming more controversial. The negative effects of spanking greatly outweigh the benefits. Spanking is a socially tolerated view promoting abusive patterns, and has a negative psychological impact in teaching children that pain, fear, and confusion promote conformability.
Spanking a child is a controversial issue. On one side of the debate are people who believe spanking is a necessary component of parenting. On the contrary are people who think spanking a child is destructive. Somewhere in the middle are people who believe spanking is legitimate only when used correctly. Part of the reason for the debate is that some parents and experts define spanking differently. To some, spanking means slapping a child on the rear-end, while others believe it is a form of corporal punishment that does not cause injury. By showing how each perspective of spanking supports their claim and defining spanking, one will be able to form an opinion.
Hyman, Irwin A. The Case Against Spanking: How to Discipline Your Children Without Hitting. San Fransico: Jossey-Bass, 1997. Print.
Harvard Medical School . "The Spanking Debate." Harvard Mental Health Letter (2002): 1-3. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 April 2011.
The term corporal punishment means the intentional infliction of pain on the body for purposes of punishment and includes slapping, hitting with objects, pinching, shaking and forcing to stand for long periods of time (Epoch 1). Family researchers define corporal punishment as " the use of physical force aimed at causing children to experience pain but not injury, for the purposes of correction and control of youthful behavior" (Day 83). Spanking is one form of physical or corporal punishment (Epoch 1).
Holden (2002) reviewed Gershoff’s (2002) meta-analyses of eighty-eight (88) studies and noted that there were both positive and negative outcomes associated with the punishment of spanking. According to Gershoff’s (2002) analysis, the one positive outcome was immediate compliance by the child (Holden, 2002). This result was found to be consistent in five (5) studies. Immediate compliance was defined as the child complying to the parents directive within five (5) seconds. In stark contrast, there were four (4) negative outcomes. The analysis showed a negative effect on the quality of the parent child relationship, the child’s mental health, the child’s perception of being a victim of physical child abuse, and also impacted aggression in adulthood (Holden, 2002).
In this essay, smacking is defined as spanking a child with the purpose to either discipline or punish. Professor Murray characterizes beating as the utilization of physical power with the expectation of making a child encounter torment yet not causing them to get injured, with the end goal of controlling their child’s attitude. The most frequent physical punishment which is categorized as sensible include the age of the child and the form of punishment. The negative impacts on smacking a child can be seen as research shows it reduces cognitive ability by lowering the IQ. However, there is an argument which states that there is a positive relationship between harsh discipline and how a child deals with problems in later life. This may be true in some cases but smacking may create kids to have bad mental health such as low self-esteem. Consequently, smacking children should be made illegal.
Wyckoff, J and Unell, B.C (2010) Discipline without Shouting or Spanking: Practical Solutions to the Most Common Preschool Behaviour Problems. New York: Meadowbrook Press.
Several forms of emotional damage have been associated with physical punishment in children such as confusion, aggressive behaviors, and mental illnesses. These are all signs of abuse or to be more specific a parent that did not fully understand the limitations of the biblical approach. On the other hand, are these factual claims? Not even research can back these claims up. Afifi, T. O., Monta, N. P., Dasiewicz, P., MacMillan, H. L., & Sareen, J. (2012) authors of a journal called Physical Punishment and Mental Disorders: Results From a Nationally Representative US Sample clearly state that research is flawed and no findings can be proven to show a link between physical punishment and mental disorders. Parents may have heard “spare the rod, spoil the child” but there is more behind that saying. The Bible does not say to use excessive force it tells a parent to use their love and words of knowledge to correct a child.
“It hurts and it’s painful inside – it’s like breaking your bones; it’s loud and sore, and it stings; it feels like you’ve been adopted or something and you’re not part of their family; you feel like you don’t like your parents anymore; you feel upset because they are hurting you, and you love them so much, and then all of a sudden they hit you and you feel as though they don’t care about you” (Pritchard 9). These are the feelings of those juveniles who suffer from corporal punishment. Corporal punishment has been one of the main topics of research in Psychology in last few decades. Although people had believed, “Spare the rod and spoil the child” but in the present age of science, research has revealed that the corporal punishment causes more harm to the children instead of having a positive effect on them. According to UNICEF, “Corporal punishment is actually the use of physical measures that causes pain but no wounds, as a means of enforcing discipline” (1). It includes spanking, squeezing, slapping, pushing and hitting by hand or with some other instruments like belts etc. But it is different from physical abuse in which punishment result in wounds and the objective is different from teaching the discipline. Although Corporal punishment is considered to be a mode of teaching discipline and expeditious acquiescence, however, it leads to the disruption of parent-child relationship, poor mental health of juveniles, moral internalization along with their anti-social and aggressive behaviour and it is against the morality of humans.
Hyman (1989) says corporal punishment refers to intentional application of physical pain as a method of changing behavior. It includes a wide variety of methods such as hitting, slapping, punching, kicking, pinching, shaking, choking, use of various objects (wooden paddles, belts, sticks, pins, or others), painful body postures, use of electric shock, use of excessive exercise drills, or prevention of urine or stool limination (p.161).