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The positive effect that spanking has on children
Influence of corporal punishment
Influence of corporal punishment
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Spanking has been used for many years and it must come to an end. Also known as corporal punishment, spanking is most often used as a form of discipline. Although it is said to have some benefits, the negative consequences far outweigh the good. According to Dr. Wilson and Dr. Lyon, “physical punishment delivered in anger with the intent to cause pain is unacceptable and dangerous to the health and well being of the child.”( Guidance for Effective Discipline, online) It is important for spanking to stop because it is ineffective, causes more problems and because there are other options to consider.
While many parents are still spanking their children when they are being naughty, they do not stop to consider how effective this method is. Is this method really working? A question Dr. Phil McGraw asks is: what does a child learn by being hit?(Three Questions to Ask Before Spanking, online) The answer to this question is different for every child, but in many instances you are telling your child that violence is acceptable and that it is an okay way to react when you’re mad .(Three Questions to Ask Before Spanking, online) Although commonly used throughout households with children, not much can be said for spanking’s long term success. To begin with, the only way to maintain the original effect of spanking, is to increase the force with which it is delivered. This can quickly escalate into abuse. (Guidance for Effective Discipline, online) Using spanking as a method can turn into a quick fix whenever the child misbehaves, rather than using other rational techniques for each scenario. Finally, positive reinforcement and other discipline techniques are more difficult to implement when spanking has been used as a primary method of discipline. (Guidance for Effective Discipline, online) As might be expected, the lack of effectiveness also leads to negative consequences and more problems.
Continued use of spanking can lead to some harmful effects and long lasting negative lessons. It is common knowledge that children learn from what they are taught. What lessons would the like our child to learn from spanking? According to L.D. Eron, “spanking models aggressive behavior as a solution to conflict and has been associated with the increased aggression in preschool and school children.” (Guidance for Effective Discipline, online) The c...
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...ful. Spanking must stop, because no child should die at the hands of their parents.
Works Cited
Cohen P. “How can generative theories of effective punishment be tested?” Pediatrics
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Graziano AM, “Subabusive Violence in Child Rearing in Middle-class American
Families.” Pediatrics 1996; 98:845-848
Eron Ld “Research and public policy”. Pediatrics 1996; 98:821-823
McGraw, Phil M.D. “Age-Appropriate Discipline Techniques”[Online].Available http://www.drphil.com/advice/advice_landing.jhtml?section=Parenting (accessed July 4, 2005)
McGraw, Phil M.D. “Spanking Research”[Online].Available http://www.drphil.com/advice/advice_landing.jhtml?section=Parenting (accessed July 4, 2005)
McGraw, Phil M.D. “Three Questions to Ask Before Spanking”[Online].Available http://www.drphil.com/advice/advice_landing.jhtml?section=Parenting (accessed July 4, 2005)
Strauss Murray PhD et al. “Spanking by Parents and Subsequent Antisocial Behavior of
Children.” Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescents Medicine 1997
Wilson DR, Lyman RD “Time-out in the treatment of childhood behaviour problems: implementation and research issues” Child Family Behaviour Therapy 1982;
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Swat! The entire store tries not to stare at the overwhelmed mother spanking her three-year-old whaling son. As if the screaming tantrum wasn't enough of a side show at the supermarket. This method, or technique perhaps, has been around for decades, even centuries. Generations have sat on grandpa’s lap and listened to the stories of picking their own switch or getting the belt after pulling off a devilish trick. So why then has it become a major controversy in the past few decades? The newest claim is that spanking and other forms of physical punishment can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children. Brendan L. Smith uses many case studies and psychologists findings in his article “The Case Against Spanking” to suggest that parents refrain from physically punishing their children due to lasting harmful effects.
Spanking doesn’t allow children to learn the reasons why to act appropriately. When parents use physical punishment, such as spanking, to discipline their children, they do so in order to improve their child’s behavior. According to a report composed by a lead researcher in the field of pediatrics, spanking does not teach children the reason for why they are being punished or why their behavior was wrong. Spanking teaches children to act in a desired way only because of fear of being punished. Being a victim of spanking, I only feared the idea of being spanked, and that is why I changed my behavior for the time being. I did not actually understand the reasoning for why I was being punished. Spanked children do not understand the positive and important reasons for acting properly.
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
...ginning of humanity. It worked then, and it works now. Critics have decided to re-define spanking as abuse. They would like for everyone to believe the propaganda. The truth is, however that spanking has its benefits. A little pain has positive long term results. Parents can expect a well mannered respectful adult to be the result. Parents should decide if they want to spank their children; not society. One parent’s choice of discipline has no value over another’s. The key thing to remember when it comes to discipline is to discipline out of love for the child. Never spank a child while angry. Explain to the child why the spanking has to be given. Afterwards, show some affection. This way the child will feel loved and understand reconciliation (Dobson). The child will have no feelings of resentment. When parents follow these steps, discipline will never be abuse.
Did you know that over half of the population spanks their children? The idea of using spanking as a punishment has raised controversy among parents. Spanking is the use of an open hand to strike someone and many parents want it to become illegal. While spanking has some down sides, it should remain legal because making it illegal would be difficult to enforce, and there are already laws against child abuse.
The question of whether to spank or not has been the most controversial child-rearing issue of the past three decades. Though no end in sight, after analyzing my research of the extremes of spanking, I conclude in the gray area. John Rosemond proved the most logical approach to spanking. He has studied both sides of the issues and points out the inconsistencies of each side. Rosemond supports his point of view with grounds of disagreement and agreement and fills gaps the gap of the gray area connecting the opposing sides.
Spanking teaches the child that violence is a socially accepted behavior to attain a desired result. To better understand this concept, we must first look at how a child’s brain works. From infancy, children learn through observation and imitation. Studies have shown that infants as young as forty-two minutes can successfully replicate simple facial expressions (Metzloff, Decety 492). By eight months, infants can imitate basic motor movement, even after twenty-four hours have passed since the initial movement occurred. At fourteen months, children can apply an imitation to an external situation up to a week after the initial imitation. (Windell, 67-68, 221). A famous example of this is Albert Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment. Christopher Green of York University helps interpret Bandura’s experiment and results: While acknowledging that certain children may have inherited aggressive personalities, Bandura demonstrated that the majority of personality is learned. Adult models were escorted to a room and shown various toys to play with while child observers watched from outside the room. Among the various toys was a clown “bobo” doll. In some “play” sessions, the models demonstrated aggression toward the doll by punching, kicking, hitting and yelling at it. In other sessions, the models quietly pla...
Nonetheless, considers spanking an outcome with dysfunctional mental and physical health issues that roots from often harsh spankings (Kazdin and Benjet, 2003). If parents were set to believe corporal punishment leads to the development of mental issues or physical aggression with peers solving conflicts (Taylor et al.,2016). If the world knew what corporal punishment actually does parents would seek a different approach. Most parents think the views of their children is a reflection of how they are being raised, which supports why this article argument is stronger. Another reason this article is stronger argument is because of how severe the logical fallacies are with in “Spanking and Children’s Externalizing Behavior Across the First Decade of Life:” Even so, the article did provide some strong points as well by recognizing the limitations the studies bring with parents by relying on their responses to general questions about spanking.
Proponents of spanking bans have a tendency to label spanking as corporal punishment. They then categorize it along with many abusive activities. Psychologist Kerby Alvy explains corporal punishment as, “pinching, pulling ears and hair, shaking, slapping, smacking, spanking, swatting, hitting, kicking, punching, paddling, using switches, hair brushes, belts and ironing cords, and having children kneel on gravel or ...
To commence, parents should avoid spanking their children because of the physiological consequences. Sufficient evidence exists in proving that spanking slows the cognitive development of children (Straus, 2011). Spanked children tend to do far worse on achievement tests than those whose parents used other forms of punishment (Straus, 2011). Because of the retardation in the cognitive development, spanked children must spend their entire lives catching up to their counterparts who did not receive such harsh punishment and cannot enjoy a quality childhood. Hitting children can cause back problems (Hunt, 2011). Shock waves travel up the spine and cause nerve damage (Hunt, 2011). If a parent disciplined his/her child out of love, it would not be with an expensive medical bill later on in life.
Finally, we need to know more about the personal resources of parents that can lessen the incidence of spanking. It is found that spanking sharply decreases as the parent ages. Despite ideological motivations, parents can and should be trained to understand alternative strategies of discipline (Day 93).
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).
First of all, spanking does not lead to violence. Our surrounding world and media do. "The average sixteen-year- old has watched 18,000 murders during his formative years, including a daily bombardment of stabbings, shootings, hangings, decapitations, and general dismemberment" (Meier 34). It seems unjust to blame parents who are trying to raise their children properly for today's violence. If a child touches a hot stove he does not become a more violent person because of it, he just learns not to do it again because he learned a valuable lesson from the pain (Meier 34).
The issue of spanking is whether it is justifiable or an act of child abuse. Some child specialists, such as Christine Walsh and Michael Boyle, argue that if a parent must administer a spanking, it should not be through anger and only as a last option when other forms of discipline have been deemed unsuccessful. They say that for a spanking to be instructive it must be...
Spanking is a disciplinary act that has been used by parents for years now. It does not seem like a big deal at the time, but spanking does have long term effects that can affect the child even when he or she is a adult. Spanking whether it is appropriate for parents or any guardian of a child should be allowed to spank their child or not. There is a lot of controversy because parents say kids need to be disciplined when they are behaving badly. Others say parents shouldn 't spank their child because they long-term outcome is worse and they are not teaching the child a lesson. Some parents agree with these specialist and don 't spank their child but use other ways of discipline that doesn 't involve hurting