Should parents stop spanking their children?
In the article, “No Spanking, No Time-Out, No Problem”, the author Olga Khazan uses emotions to influence the audience into the controversial of the type of punishment parents should use for misbehaving children. Khazan purpose in her article is to persuade the parents to stop resulting to physical abuse, spanking, their children as a disciplinary method. Khazan explains the consequences physical abuse can cause of used as a disciplinary method. “On the international front, physical discipline is increasingly being viewed as a violation of children’s human rights.” (Smith 5) Olga Khazan not only uses her own thoughts as well as the thoughts of other experts. Alan Kazdin, PhD, Yale University psychology
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When she explains, “…that parents fall roughly into three categories.” (Khazan 3) Khazan categorizes parents into three groups, the categories follow the type of disciplinary methods the parents use. The three categories described by Khazan are as followed; the first category is the parents who have snacks ready to reward the child who obey the chore chart made by the parents; the second category of parents are the overly abuse parents, who abuse their children tremendously; the third and final category are the parents that aren’t abuse, but are also not the best parents, these parents can be classified as “bi-polar” because they can be tough abuse parents one day and then relaxed lenient parents the next. After reading and realizing the category parents fall in, it hits them in their heart. No parent wants to read and realize they fall in the worse of the three categories. After reading which category they fall in parents will try and fix the mistakes it is they are doing. Spanking causes not only the obvious physical harm but, as well as emotional …show more content…
The way children are treat by their parents reflects from themselves and onto their peers. “… parents that are very sarcastic, a child will be very sarcastic with their peers…” Parents don’t realize the affects spanking causes too the children’s mental state. In the article written by Brendan L. Smith, he explains that physical punishment, including spanking, “...can lead to increase aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury, and mental health problem for children.” Although physical punishment, such as spanking, may work momentarily, but it just causes the children to become more aggressive. (Smith 3) Over 30 countries have completely banned physical punishments for children. Elizabeth Gershoff, PhD, at the University of Texas at Austin, another expert on the issue says “Physical punishment doesn’t work to get kids to comply, so parents think they have to keep escalating it. That is why it is so dangerous…” (Smith
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.
Luscombe shifts from the use of pathos to logos, by discussing the negative effects of spanking. “Kids who are spanked frequently have lower IQs, are more aggressive, and are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.” Describing the characteristics of children who are spanked helps reason with the parents reading. Parents want their children to succeed in life, and most will do anything they can to make that happen. So if statistics show that spanking kids as a form a discipline can cause lower IQ’s, this is going to further convince them not to spank, making her argument successful so far. Luscombe then discusses how infants who are spanked “had higher spikes in the stress hormone cortisol when faced with a new experience.” Incorporating studies about how, not only toddlers and older children are spanked, but also babies adds more concern from the audience, further reasoning with them through these
...ture, and second, in the parent’s eyes, must be increased in order to continue to be effective. This can possibly lead to child abuse because the parent won’t understand how violent they are being toward their child because the child will not react the same to spanking after time as it did the first time it was spanked.
Darcia begins her writing by first defining spanking as “hitting a child on the bottom with an open hand.” She then illustrates situations in which many parents may warrant the need for spanking. She follows with multiple examples of the negative effects of corporal punishment on the developing children ranging from increased aggression in retaliation to lack of trust
Olga Khazan, the experienced author of the article “No Spanking, No Time-out, No Problems” constantly provides evidence to why the world should not use harsh discipline when punishing their children. This issue can impact this generation, making it more relevant today. It is extremely important to our society on how we choose to punish our children, for they will also take these methods and pass it on to not only their own children but suggest them to others as well. Therefore, non-violent punishment will lead to a safer and a more peaceful environment to all humanity. Khazan, the author, uses many controversial issues, her own point of view & ideas, and numerous examples & stories to prove her beliefs that violently punishing children cannot
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.
The use of spanking is one of the most controversial parenting practices and also one of the oldest, spanning throughout many generations. Spanking is a discipline method in which a supervising adult deliberately inflicts pain upon a child in response to a child’s unacceptable behaviour. Although spanking exists in nearly every country and family, its expression is heterogeneous. First of all the act of administering a spanking varies between families and cultures. As Gershoff (2002) pointed out, some parents plan when a spanking would be the most effective discipline whereas some parents spank impulsively (Holden, 2002). Parents also differ in their moods when delivering this controversial punishment, some parents are livid and others try and be loving and reason with the child. Another source of variation is the fact that spanking is often paired with other parenting behaviours such as, scolding, yelling, or perhaps raging and subsequently reasoning. A third source of variation concerns parental characteristics. Darling and Steinberg (1993) distinguished between the content of parental acts and the style in which it was administered (Holden, 2002). With all this variation researchers cannot definitively isolate the singular effects of spanking.
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).
Spanking is commonly associated with parents attempting to correct behavior in a child; ultimately often out of frustration and/or anger with the child’s behavior. In the heat of the moment, most parents do not associate the long term psychosocial or behavioral effects the act of spanking can have on a child. The dangers of these effects derived from how children think and behave show us that spanking is not an effective form of discipline.
Many authorities and psychologists believe that spanking breaks a child's spirit and only leads to violence. They think that it causes the child to become depressed, angry or hostile and they have conducted many studies to prove these things. This type of harsh punishment occurs often, but it is called child abuse. There is a great difference between abusing a child and properly disciplining a child. "One is an act of love; the other is an act of hostility, and they are as different as night and day" (Dobson 35).
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...
Critics of spanking need to understand that spanking and abuse are not the same. Spanking is a quick squat on the buttock that causes temporary pain. Child abuse is physical injury such as beating, kicking, or punching a child with cruel intent. Psychiatrist William Glasser makes a distinction between the two. Glasser explains, “Discipline is directed at the objectionable behavior, and the child will accept its consequences without resentment.” By contrast, he defined punishment as, “A response that is directed at the individual” (qtd. in Dobson 96). Spanking allows room for forgiveness and reconciliation. Abuse comes from a place of hostility. It is harsh and leaves little room for forgiveness or reconciliation. Yes, spanking may cause brief discomfort, but it is not the same as beating, punching, or kicking a child.
Smith, B. L. (2012). The case against spanking. American Psychological Association, 43(4), 60. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/spanking.aspx
“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.
It has been said that “spanking trains children ‘in violence and domination’, even when it’s moderate” (Saunders 1)...