Spanking has been used for many years and it must come to an end. Also known as corporal punishment, spanking is most often used as a form of discipline. Although it is said to have some benefits, the negative consequences far outweigh the good. According to Dr. Wilson and Dr. Lyon, “physical punishment delivered in anger with the intent to cause pain is unacceptable and dangerous to the health and well being of the child.”( Guidance for Effective Discipline, online) It is important for spanking to stop because it is ineffective, causes more problems and because there are other options to consider.
While many parents are still spanking their children when they are being naughty, they do not stop to consider how effective this method is. Is this method really working? A question Dr. Phil McGraw asks is: what does a child learn by being hit?(Three Questions to Ask Before Spanking, online) The answer to this question is different for every child, but in many instances you are telling your child that violence is acceptable and that it is an okay way to react when you’re mad .(Three Questions to Ask Before Spanking, online) Although commonly used throughout households with children, not much can be said for spanking’s long term success. To begin with, the only way to maintain the original effect of spanking, is to increase the force with which it is delivered. This can quickly escalate into abuse. (Guidance for Effective Discipline, online) Using spanking as a method can turn into a quick fix whenever the child misbehaves, rather than using other rational techniques for each scenario. Finally, positive reinforcement and other discipline techniques are more difficult to implement when spanking has been used as a primary method of discipline. (Guidance for Effective Discipline, online) As might be expected, the lack of effectiveness also leads to negative consequences and more problems.
Continued use of spanking can lead to some harmful effects and long lasting negative lessons. It is common knowledge that children learn from what they are taught. What lessons would the like our child to learn from spanking? According to L.D. Eron, “spanking models aggressive behavior as a solution to conflict and has been associated with the increased aggression in preschool and school children.” (Guidance for Effective Discipline, online) The c...
... middle of paper ...
...ful. Spanking must stop, because no child should die at the hands of their parents.
Works Cited
Cohen P. “How can generative theories of effective punishment be tested?” Pediatrics
1996; 98:834-836
Graziano AM, “Subabusive Violence in Child Rearing in Middle-class American
Families.” Pediatrics 1996; 98:845-848
Eron Ld “Research and public policy”. Pediatrics 1996; 98:821-823
McGraw, Phil M.D. “Age-Appropriate Discipline Techniques”[Online].Available http://www.drphil.com/advice/advice_landing.jhtml?section=Parenting (accessed July 4, 2005)
McGraw, Phil M.D. “Spanking Research”[Online].Available http://www.drphil.com/advice/advice_landing.jhtml?section=Parenting (accessed July 4, 2005)
McGraw, Phil M.D. “Three Questions to Ask Before Spanking”[Online].Available http://www.drphil.com/advice/advice_landing.jhtml?section=Parenting (accessed July 4, 2005)
Strauss Murray PhD et al. “Spanking by Parents and Subsequent Antisocial Behavior of
Children.” Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescents Medicine 1997
Wilson DR, Lyman RD “Time-out in the treatment of childhood behaviour problems: implementation and research issues” Child Family Behaviour Therapy 1982;
4: 5-20
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...
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.
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.
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
Spanking is alive and well today despite the antispanking prohibition. In a poll sponsored by Working Mother and the Epcot Center at Walt Disney World in Florida, 7,225 adults and 2,599 kids were surveyed (Hickey 48). When asked ?When should parents spank their children,? 51 percent replied ?When they think it?s necessary,? 30 percent said ?Only in extreme circumstances,? and only ten percent answered ?Never?(Hickey 48). Twelve percent of young adults, ages 18 to 34, which responded to the poll, said spanking should not occur; in comparison with the seven percent of both the 35-49 and 50-64 age groups which responded ?Never? (Hickey 48). The poll asked ?Which of these is (or was) most often used in your family to control children?s behavior?? As the prevalent choice, 37 percent responded ?Taking away privileges,? 23 percent said ?spanking,? 18 percent replied ?reasoning with the child,? four percent said ?bribes? and three percent answered ?ass...
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).
What do most people believe to be true about the topic? Spanking is the only resource that is most effective. Yet, there are several other types of punishments that can be used in place of spanking. In my opinion, spanking is not the most effective means of punishment. We tell kids growing up that “violence is never the answer” so why should violence, because technically speaking that is what spanking is, be the answer? Why not try to get a child to understand that their actions were wrong in a more non-violent way and not contradict ourselves. What are you trying to instill in your child, fear or violence because either one of those you will accomplish. Other than just the pain taking place during the spanking, the child could also experience
The use of this form of punishment of spanking has been used for the longest time. Many parents have this form of punishment towards their children to help control their child in some cases. Like in the article “Spanking” by John A Addleman he adds to this argument of how there are many parents who strongly follow this form of punishment for their children. He added that there are parents who also believe that this form of corporal punishment is not abuse “ data regarding attitudes about spanking, have found that most parents believe that corporal punishment is a non abusive manner is an acceptable form of discipline” (Addleman 1). Many may ask what kind of corporal punishment exactly is acceptable to use towards your child. The form of punishment
...re the parents and I think that the decision should be left up to us on how “we” should discipline our children. “The key to effective child discipline is the implementation of immediate, powerful, and consistent consequences. A spanking can serve as a meaningful negative consequence in cases of undesirable behavior, but it tends to be most useful – and necessary – when a child is under 3 ½ years of age. Generally speaking, it’s our view that corporal punishment should be applied only in cases of willful disobedience or defiance of authority.”
Dr. Marshall, a clinical psychologist, has a new book which summarizes the research findings about the harmful effects of corporal punishment to help make informed decisions about how to raise their children, rather than default to how their parents raised them. “The harmful psychological effects of spanking are the best kept secret in developmental psychology,” says Marshall. (Marshall 2) “I am convinced parents would abandon the use of corporal punishment to discipline their children if they fully understood these research find...
In my opinion, there has to be a better way to discipline children. Another solution instead of spanking a child we be to sending him to a room where he cannot interact with anyone else most of adults bad behaviors that and adults have in him are behavior that he learnt when he was young spanking I not definitely a good solution to educate a child. Because by doing that we may end up changing the way of his life as it was predestination by transforming him to become a very dangerous weapon for his surrounding and society. The same way that children who grap a gone and kill somebody it just a bad behavior that he learned somewhere and overtime he thought it was normal to do it .it is the same way that when we spank a kid at the end of the day it become et very normal behavior to him that he will practice to other.
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.
When we spank our kids we are setting them up for emotional and psychological instability. Children that are spanked are most likely to suffer from mental disorders like chronic depression, anxiety disorders, anti-social disorder, self-hate, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These conditions can cause affect a person on a subconscious level causing them to live a distressed life. Studies show that more than 60% of serial killers, prostitutes, and drug addicts were abused as children with corporal punishment. This means that spanking a child only does more harm than good in their lives. By finding more humane ways of discipline our children we, will see a reduced rate of mentally instable adults in our society. Children that are spanked also develop hate for their guardians growing up which causes them to despise them even when they become adults, some children even wish for their guardian’s to die as a result of the long term abuse. No child should ever wish for any physical h...
Even though most people are split on the issue, the fact still stands that spanking and child abuse tends to go hand-in-hand with violence in the future. When you hear of someone disciplining a child, you typically assume the child got a spanking. It’s actually really sad that we, as humans, assume that. Think about it though - if it actually came down to it that there were real laws set in place against spanking, what would come next? There are no true ways to put a halt to spanking as a form of punishment considering it would be too difficult to actually enforce such laws. In conclusion, spanking may or may not have a direct correlation to violent futures, but it can definitely be a huge factor to it.