The Effects of Spanking on Child Agression

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In the first study that examined the effects of spanking on child aggression, researchers wanted to look at whether or not there was an association between the use of corporal punishment on children at age 3 and the aggression of the child that could potentially follow when the child reached the age of 5. They also wanted to look at any other potential risk factors that could contribute to the mother’s use of corporal punishment on the child. For this study, researchers looked at samples that were obtained from another study called the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, which looked at a variety of families from twenty large US cities (Taylor, Manganello, Lee, Rice, 2010). In order for this study to work the researchers held two separate interviews. The first interview occurred at age three. During this time, the mothers that were being interviewed were asked to indicate their ages, ethnicity, education level, household income, religion, and their marital status. They were also asked to indicate how often they had spanked their child for misbehaving. When being asked questions about their child, the researchers chose to use a checklist that would allow the mothers to provide them with information about their child's behavior. The checklist used was a checklist known as the Child Behavior Checklist which asked various questions that ranged from how easily frustrated the child got, how demanding the child was, and how aggressive the child was towards other people and animals (Taylor et al., 2010). In the second phase of the study, the interviewers came back and interviewed the same people 2 years later. This time they used a checklist similar to the one used at age 3, however the questions had changed to reflect the age of the child. This was due to the fact that the children were now at the age in which they would be in school and socializing with other children as well as dealing with other authority figures that weren't their parents. According to the study, this questionnaire covered whether or not the child argues a lot, bullies, gets into fights, and is disobedient at school (Taylor et al.

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