While many adults would argue that hitting people is wrong, spanking children continues to be used as an acceptable form of discipline. Many parents think spanking will teach children not to do things that are forbidden, stop them quickly when they are being irritating, and encourage them to do what they should. So what do children learn from being spanked? The hitting itself doesn’t teach them anything. How contradictory is it for you to say that your child cannot hit or hurt anyone else—but that you can hurt him whenever you think it's appropriate? Will your toddler pick up a moral lesson here?
Spanking may be ineffective because it does not teach an alternative behavior.
It is safe to say that spanking clearly sends the wrong message to children. Why wouldn’t it? Spanking communicates that hitting is an acceptable way to solve problems. If we want our children to behave, adults should be able to do the same when it comes to punishment. If a child always connects bad behavior with violence, the real lesson trying to be taught gets lost for the fear of the consequences. It is hard for a child to understand that they are getting hurt, to prevent them from getting hurt from something else. For example, perhaps your child has made a mess with his or her toys, and receives a spanking as a result. The child doesn’t completely understand why it is important to clean up after he or she is done playing. The reason for the spanking gets lost in the way the child was disciplined, and is more likely to repeat the behavior in the future.
Hitting also promotes anger- in children and in parents. Parents often tend to react more harshly and spank harder while they are caught in an angry moment. Parents who give themselves time to calm do...
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...important that we teach our children a system of values, and the difference between right and wrong. Where do we draw the line when it comes to disciplining our children? Spanking isn't necessarily something a parent consciously chooses. Most often, it happens when parents lose their cool, gets worked up, or feels desperate. Spanking is commonly used as a last resort of discipline. This is a controversial and emotional issue that has been debated about for years. There are other positive ways that a child can be taught without using violence as the answer. A parent’s main goal should be to help our children to become responsible, loving, self-disciplined adults, with whatever means necessary. This can be done without the use of violence. Spanking is not so much a question about right or wrong, but more about if it is an effective or ineffective form of discipline.
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.
Nadine Block argues that spanking children is not a form of love or compassion, but rather an act of violence and disciplinary spanking should be an outlawed practice. Disciplinary spanking is a different thing than a depressed or angry parent spanking a child to relieve their mood. Spanking a child in order to remove the idea of performing an action known to the child to be unacceptable is something that every parent should do, and is not an act of abuse or violence. When used correctly, spanking children is a highly effective and loving response to unruly behavior, because the child learns how to behave and become an upstanding citizen (Dodson). If a child is not disciplined for improper actions, the child is more likely to develop behavior problems and illnesses such as ADHD, while a child who is properly disciplined is more likely to grow into a better-behaved individual (Shute).
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.
...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.
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...
Many people believe that physical punishment of a child is not right and in a public institution, they have a right to get involved and try to stop what they see as violence against children. In fact, one Texas judge sentenced a mother to five years of probation after spanking her child, even though there is no law that strictly prohibits spanking. Despite the increasing mindset that spanking is abuse, sometimes a handprint on the backside is more effective than a firm warning. In a study done by the Pediatrics, it was found that a small two percent of children observed showed any negative effects from spanking and even that could have been the result of something else. So if spanking does not really harm a child mentally, then there is nothing to worry about.
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.
According to Park (2010) spanking has serious long term effects on a child.I agree with this argument drawn from conclusions in her article “The Long-Term Effects
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).
...their child while obviously angered, that emotion is likely to be very noticeable to the child. Unfortunately, that anger is all too likely to become attached to the punishment, resulting in the unwanted link of: mad parent = pain. A serene, calm parent is very much less likely to turn out to be an active part of the negative memory. Obviously, this is completely up to the judgment of the parent, but I have a tendency to concur that not only is spanking less likely to be abused if lightly applied, but also it maintains a better influence when it is applied. I would declare only when there clearly doesn't seem to be any other way of getting through to the child. Spanking is unquestionably not the only effective punishment, and perhaps not even the best, nevertheless I consider it to be effective, when applied carefully, in relation with other teaching mechanisms.
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
Some people believe spanking a child is child abuse, and that it causes the child to grow up aggressive and violent. This would mean that every child that is spanked during their developmental stages will grow up to be an example of bad behavior. However, there is no actual data or information that can confirm that spanking a child will cause a child to grow up to be violent or too aggressive. Children have been trained to obey rules or a set code of behavior for centuries. It is the best way to mold a child to be a respectable adult, and they can pass on the behavior to their future children. It may not always happen, but its pretty effective.
As children grow up, they’re more than likely exposed to being disciplined in one way or another. “Surveys of parents show that 90 percent have used some form of physical punishment on their children” (Graziano 1). So therefore, we can all agree that when it comes down to being punished, parents more often than not resort to spanking their child(ren). That being said, many parents will readily agree that spanking a child should not be considered a form of child abuse. However, the question still stands: how far does the spanking have to go in order for it to be considered child abuse? Although some are convinced that there are better ways to discipline a child, there are others that maintain the idea that spanking is the best option for disciplinary action.
Any parent who has threatened to spank a child to modify behavior has observed the immediate change in demeanor. Psychologists tell us, however, that corporal punishment has no more of a desired effect on a child in the long term than alternative disciplinary methods such as a timeout or revoking privileges. Sweden proved that corporal punishment is no more effective than alternative methods and law enforcement officers are no more burdened by the laws put in place to protect the physical integrity of children. If in fact opponents and proponents are both right, their methods both work equally as well as the other, which one is the right one? Can they both be right? Unless we are going to make it legal to go around hitting each other for being snarky, rude, disrespectful, not paying attention, or just out of irritation due to undesirable behavior, the right thing to do is protect the most innocent of our kind. The right thing to do is give our children the same rights we give our family, friends, neighbors, and strangers. The moral thing to do is lead by example. The answer is