Introduction Parental care is one of the characteristics of only humans and some other animals. We – humans – care about our children and their future. That’s why parents discipline their children and always try to raise them as good people. Each couple of parents have their own technique to teach their children what is right and what is wrong. There are a lot of studies that worked on those techniques to show their impact on the behavior and future of the children. In their study “Attitudes Predict the Use of Physical Punishment: A Prospective Study of the Emergence of Disciplinary Practices,” Vittrup, Holden, and Buck examined the use of some disciplinary techniques, spanking specifically, by the mothers and what are the consequences of …show more content…
Throughout the study, researchers asked the participants some questions about spanking in for of survey. Questions in the survey were divided into three sections: before, during, and soon after the spanking. The survey included questions such as “whether the parent warned of the upcoming spanking, how the parent felt before, during, and after the spanking (e.g., angry, guilty, calm, etc.), whether a reason was provided to the child during the spanking, and how many times the child was struck during a spanking” (Vittrup et al., 2006, …show more content…
The reasoning was in the second place and was used by 85% of the mothers. Significant results have shown only two forms of physical punishment were used by the mothers during the first 12 months. “Twenty-one percent of the mothers reported slapping their child’s hand, and 14% reported spanking their infants” (Vittrup et al., 2006, p.2058). Yelling is another method that was used by one-third of the mothers while they were angry. Significantly, data has found that “spanking and yelling peaked in the fourth year, Fifty-nine percent of the mothers reported spanking and 93% reported yelling at their children” (Vittrup et al., 2006, p.2059). Importantly, mothers reported using spanking with the hand as the most used type of physical punishment among all four types of responses. Overall, mothers used disciplinary methods less likely when their children were younger than 12 months of
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.
People say spanking can be harmful to a child’s health. They have placed laws in Washington State in regards to spanking and other corporal punishments. But why, why all the fuss, spanking couldn’t be that bad could it? There must be studies to prove that spanking can cause bad child behavior otherwise why would there be laws on this madder? What are the opinions of the experts, and their methods of disciplining children?
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...
Spanking a child is not against the law in most places. However, parents who use it in their homes are being accused of child abuse. The Chicago Tribune published an article that urged readers to report child abuse when they become aware of it. In the article “Child abuse in plain View” the author describes spanking as a type of abuse that happens behind closed doors (“Child abuse in plain View”). Like most critics of corporal punishment, the author is trying to link spanking to abuse. The author`s concern about abuse is a valid one. Abuse should be reported immediately. However, any attempt to define spanking as abuse is wrong. Spanking a child is not abuse. It is an effective way of discipline that helps guide the child into becoming a respectful and responsible person.
Harvard Medical School . "The Spanking Debate." Harvard Mental Health Letter (2002): 1-3. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 April 2011.
A parent’s parenting styles are as diverse as the world we live in today. Nowadays, parents only want what is best for their children and their parenting styles plays a crucial role in the development of children which will in the long run, not only effect the child’s childhood years, but later prolong into their adult life as well.
In a research project done using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, researchers examined the antecedents of parents’ spanking behavior. This study represents an important step forward in understanding the profile of parents who spank their children.
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.
We have all encountered this situation: A small child is standing in the middle of a department store throwing a complete temper tantrum demanding a toy. His mother, exasperated threatens him with time-outs and other deprived privileges, but the stubborn child continues to kick and scream. In the "old days," a mother wouldn't think twice about marching the defiant child to the bathroom and giving him a good spanking to straighten him out, but these days, parents have to worry about someone screaming child abuse. Whether or not to spank a child has become a heated issue in today's society.
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...
Winstok, Z (2013) ‘Israeli Mothers’ willingness to use corporal punishment to correct the misbehaviour of their elementary school children’, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol.29, no.1, p.44-65.
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
I personally do not advocate spanking. I could not imagine losing my temper to a point where I thought I needed to spank my child. While I do anticipate that having children will be a real test of patience, I do not expect that I will lose my patience so much that I will spank my children. I find spanking to be a real contradiction to what most parents tell their children. Most parents do not allow their children to hit, whether they are angry or not. Even when kids think another kid did something wrong, or bad, they are still not allowed to hit. If a parent tells a kid this, and then turns around and spanks the kid when they do something wrong, how will the kid ever learn that hitting is wrong? In my opinion, there has to be a better way to discipline children. I think that sending a child to a room where they cannot interact with anyone else, and then taking away a privilege would be a better way of handling discipline. Also, when I was a child, I can remember that when I was angry, my dad would come in to my room after I had time to cool down and talk to me about why I was angry. I can remember these as really fond times with my dad. It helped me identify why I was so angry, and most of the time it was at my mom for not letting me have my way. When I could identify why I was angry, my dad and I could come up with a solution to solve the problem. I think that rather than spanking, this is a good way to discipline children.
It has been said that “spanking trains children ‘in violence and domination’, even when it’s moderate” (Saunders 1)...
Parenting carries love, moral values, life skills, knowledge, traditional and so on to their children all the time. Most of the children practice the moral values, knowledge, and tradition which taught by their parents. In this way, most of them follow and believe in their parents’ word. Basically, children world views and mind were deeply shaped by their parents. Most of the children exercise what their parents practice. Children learn to make sense of what is going on around them by interact with their parents and surroundings. Through the “eyes” of their parents, they learn to see, think, question and look for answer which can satisfy them. If children were raised in a good or positive way, there is a very great probability that our society would be better off. Hence, from my point of view, parenting should be a privilege for a better future not only for the children it own but also our society.