The Effects Of Spanking On Children

The age of the child plays a significant part in spanking use and frequency. Spanking may have different effects on children of different ages. This is due to the fact that a child’s age determines his or her level of cognitive functioning, which in turn impacts his or her ability to understand the punishment. This is also why many times undesired behavior is misunderstood as externalized behavior. Research suggests that spanking may be associated with positive behavior in children between the ages of two and six, when it is not abusive (Stacks et al., 2002). Using data from a nationally representative sample of Americans in 2008, 93% of parents had hit (either with or without an object) their two to four year old child within a two week period, and 58% of parents had hit their five to nine year old child within a two week period (Lansford et al., 2012). In contrast that spanking may be associated with positive behavior, research has also demonstrated that increased spanking at age three corresponds to higher levels of aggression once the child had reached the age of five (Boutwell et al., 2011). In another study the spanking frequency before age two was researched, and there was a significant predictor of a child’s risk for behavior problems at school age for white non-Hispanic

Among other ethnicities such as Hispanic and African American children, spanking frequency before age two was not consistently associated with child behavior three years later, although some results were suggestive of a positive association in these families (Slade &