If your family is like 90% of the population, then you have been disciplined using corporal punishment or have discipled your children with it. The topic of whether parents should use corporal punishment has been debated for years, and it is illegal in the United States to use physical punishment; however, each state’s law on corporal punishment varies and all allow some form of physical punishment. New studies greatly question whether corporal punishment should be used when discipling children. Parents or guardians should not be allowed to use corporal punishment because it causes anti-social behavior, it increases aggression, and it causes cognitive problems. Corporal punishment is used in many homes throughout the United States despite …show more content…
There is an indirect correlation between children who are physically punished and those who have antisocial behavior. Studies have shown that children who are punished in a physical way, often exhibit difficulties obeying rules and norms as they grow up. According to "The Effect Of Corporal Punishment On Antisocial Behavior In Children” by Andrew Grogan Kaylor, “Children 's age had an effect on levels of antisocial behavior, in that older children exhibited higher levels of antisocial behavior.” Antisocial behavior is demonstrate more as the child grows older. Parents often use corporal punishment as a way to discipline a child when they exhibit antisocial behavior. However, studies have shown that corporal punishment increases this behavior instead of decreasing (Eamon 2001; Eamon & Zuehl, 2001; Straus & Donnelly, 2001; Straus et al., 1997). When comparing data from children who were greatly exposed to corporal punishment and those whose parents occasionally used this way of punishing their child, data showed that there was a very small differences between both groups. This study demonstrated that even if parents do not use physical punishment often, it can still cause their child to have antisocial behavior. According to "A Cross-Cultural Examination Of The Link Between Corporal Punishment And Adolescent Antisocial Behavior” by Ronald L. Simons, Chyi-In Wu, Kuei-Hsiu Lin, …show more content…
This punishment can affects the child’s thought processes, problem solving, and decision-making. According to “Corporal Punishment by Mothers and Development of Children’s Cognitive Ability: A Longitudinal Study of Two Nationally Representative Age Cohorts” by Murray A. Straus and Mallie J. Paschall, “ CP adversely affects the development of cognitive ability, ending use of CP could result in an increase in the national average level of cognitive ability.” A child undergoes cognitive development as they grow, and corporal punishment can impact this process. When a child is slapped or spanked, the child becomes afraid causing high levels of stress. When a child’s body undergoes significant levels of stress, it can result in cognitive deficits like erroneous, difficulties understand events, and this limits the child’s ability to overachieve in school. This is supported by an interview conducted in 1986 by Power and Chapieski; women’s children who mainly used corporal punishment were tested along with children that mothers did not believe in corporal punishment. The group of kids that mothers used corporal punishment tested below or averaged compared to those who whose mothers did not practice physical punishment. Multiple children who were not punished physically did well and better than expected when they took this academic test. This study demonstrated that causing high level of stress, by using corporal
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.
Corporal punishment is considered as an act of violence against children, and it includes any use of physical punishment in response to misbehavior. Corporal punishment has been associated with child abuse, aggression, delinquency, moral internalisation, antisocial behavior, mental health, and perpetration of the spouse and child abuse. This study explored the trends in corporal punishment among the three to eleven year old children due to they are the group age that is most likely to be subjected to corporal punishment
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 recent studies, researchers have found that ninety percent of parents spank their children; yet, seventy-three percent of mothers report that their child will continue to repeat their behavior they were disciplined for (Ogilvie). Based of this information, the effectiveness of this form of discipline seems to be incredibly low. Now consider another fact: how harmful is this to children physically and mentally? Would this affect them as they grow up and even continue to affect them into their adulthood? If it fails to do anything beneficial, obviously, unforeseen consequences will be the result. Spanking children is not effective as a punishment and should be replaced with different methods to punish with lesser negative effects on young children.
The researchers find that frequent use of corporal punishment on three-year-olds (spanking more than twice over the course of a month) was associated with increased aggressive behavior at five years of age…even "minor" forms of corporal punishment, including spanking, increase children's risk of aggressive behavior
Every parent has differing beliefs in how a child must be disciplined. A child’s undesirable behavior is a cause for a parent to spank them to correct them. Simple mistakes made by children, who have yet to develop cognitive reasoning, are not deserving to experience pain. By definition in the psychological world, corporal punishment is used in like terms with spanking. It is the “use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not to injury, for the purpose of correction or control of the child’s behavior” (Straus 3). There are countless of studies that has been done by psychologists on the effects
Spankings are a vital asset in raising children. Adults who were not spanked as children as opposed to adults who were spanked may have disagreements about differing methods of discipline, but the fact remains that discipline is an important foundation of building the life of an upstanding citizen. Parents of today’s generation of children have seemed to have gotten away from the spanking method of disciplining their children and the perceived effects of this is running rampant through today’s society. Children who were spanked versus children who were not spanked behave differently in different situations throughout life. In fact, spanking your child can actually be more beneficial than once believed if practiced the right way.
According to Miller, Cindy, and Robin, the primary advantage with corporal punishment is that it is the only practical approach to discipline the unruly children (68). Apparently, the opponents of corporal punishment argue that the power of physical punishment does not instill behaviors or manners, but provokes further misbehavior and resentment. However, centuries have proved that spanking kids have produced more civilized and reliable young people. A practical example is during the American Occupation in the Philippines, where spanking and any other form of corporal punishment were applied to all the students who disobeyed the school rules, to be particular, the English-only rule. The approach led to the production of more disciplined Filipino students, who turned to be multilingual and academically competent (Miller, Cindy, and Robin 69). Nevertheless, in the current world, with the prohibition and restrictions of corporal punishment under the human right laws, there is a rapid rise in the number of juvenile delinquents every year. Consequently, the infliction of physical pain by spanking or whipping is associated with disciplining the wrongdoing kids, where they can realize their mistakes, and end up not repeating them. Therefore, corporal punishment is the most practical form of punishing the unruly kids than any other means (Engulu
Since the mid-1950s, parents and psychologists have been battling over the topic concerning corporal punishment. The parents were raised in homes where corporal punishment was used, and they feel that it was a successful technique that raised them well. Psychologists, on the other hand, conducted research; a lot of which was biased and false, telling parents that corporal punishment was bad for their children. After years of researching and studying the effects of corporal punishment, the most popular theories stating that it is a harmful technique, were proven wrong. Corporal punishment is found to be a good technique in the right situations, with the right motives, and using the correct tools.
While the practice of corporal punishment is still valid in some parts of the world it has become a dishonorable custom in other parts, especially in the West. Many parents have argued in favor for such kind of punishment by claiming that it is a quick and efficient way to achieve “immediate compliance” and discipline their children. Corporal punishment still stands as an everyday approach to ensuring discipline for the children. “Interviews conducted in 2000 for the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY, 2002) indicated that of all the parents of 3-year-olds, 51.6% reported that they had used corporal punishment in the past week, and 35.9% of parents of 4 and 5-year-olds reported that they had used corporal punishment in the same time period.”
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.
Secondly, corporal punishment in schools should not be permitted is because it can lead to harmful effects in a student’s health. Because according to Science Daily “a child in a school that uses corporal punishment has performed worst in tasks involving executive functioning-- such as, for example: planning, abstract thinking, and delaying gratification.” In addition, according to Social Development, “harshly punitive environm...
Corporal punishment is the physical disciplinary method used by parents, teachers, and school administrators in an effort to correct a child’s undesirable behaviors. The use of physical force is one that is often times controversial and usually evokes very strong reactions. These feelings surface, and opposing views clash, when scandals surrounding corporal punishment hit the media and heated arguments in the comments section of articles emerge. While corporal punishment occasionally makes its way into the limelight, it is a decision all parents are faced with eventually and often times daily. For example, when a toddler is sprawled out on the grocery store floor kicking, hitting, and flinging
Physical punishment may cause a child psychological problems. First, if the physical punishment starts at an early age the child will be used to being physically punished, therefore, his or hers self-esteem may severely negative as he or she grows up. Second, it is a life-affecting act to physically punish a child because they will be traumatized. Eventually parents should think twice before they can physically punish their children. What they should think of is what problems they are causing the child in its life.