ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

Educating parents isn't enough. Recognizing and addressing the need for additional supports for families through programs like early intervention, mental health services and other social services is vitally important. To assume everyone who spanks is doing so out of laziness or lack of education is too narrow a point of view. I believe all parents love their children but do not always have the tools to deal with the reality of parenting- especially if the parent and/or child have special needs or mental health issues. There is more at the root of aggressive or anti-social behavior in young children than whether or not they were spanked. To ignore the complexity of human biology, nature vs. nurture, parent-child relationships, cultural diversity, etc., and how these things impact behaviors would ultimately derail any efforts to provide meaningful assistance to children and their families.

The post provides a link to the actual article, which then answers all the questions about the conditions under which this research was conducted. I agree 100% with the article, and think that if we really want our field to be viewed as a profession, one thing we must do is to help parents provide structure and discipline without using physical punishment. To assume that the only way to raise children with a sense of discipline and structure is to use phsycail punishment makes no sense. And to assume that most parents know how to use 'reasonable' phsycail punishment is naive.

I'd like to know more about the research.
While I'm not a proponent of spanking, I do have to wonder about the assumption that spanking is the direct cause of later aggressive behaviors... It would make more sense to note that most spankings are precipitated by some kind of (perceived) inappropriate behavior, and that if a child is getting spanked very frequently it could be an indication that the child is demonstrating a higher incidence of challenging behaviors. Please understand that I'm looking at this from the point of view of a special education teacher who has met many children with challenging behaviors- some that are a result of mental illness or developmental disability. Some of these behavior patterns begin at a very young age and are not the result of parenting strategies or philosophies- they are "biological," for lack of a better term.
I bring this up because the link between spanking and later aggressive behavior may just mean that these children demonstrated unusually challenging behaviors in the first place- and would have continued to have difficulty in this area later in childhood regardless of whether or not they were spanked.
I do, however, recognize that some children are being spanked because that is a more convenient thing to do than to invest time in teaching conflict resolution skills. But it is also very convenient to make spanking a "scapegoat" for all later aggressive behavior a child/young adult demonstrates, rather than looking at the many variables that are likely at play. There are a lot of very well-adjusted and successful members of all societies that were spanked as children. Just as there are children getting beaten in the name of discipline (and I consider beatings very different than spankings) to the point of being unnecessary and even abusive in some cases.
I personally believe that challenging behaviors need to be addressed without any kind of hitting, but I do respect the fact that it is a culturally sensitive issue. I also believe that just because there is a correlation between two things, doesn't mean that one caused the other. That's why I'd love to see more information about these research studies- to see what variables were taken into consideration (besides just the amount of spankings that occurred at different ages and by whom).

Spanking is an easy, lazy way out, and it is physical abuse. It teaches the child that it's ok to hit and hurt someone else, just because you're angry. Conflict Resolution is the only way to go. And once you start implementing the 6 steps in your classroom, the children do catch on, and start doing it on their own. It teaches respecting feelings, setting boundaries, and problem-solving and working cooperatively toward a solution. In the beginning, taking the time to show the children by example is key.

I'm curious about this study as well. I am currently taking a course about creating and using studies and how we need to know the original conditions and circumstances. I would like to know how a definitive correlation can be drawn between fathers spanking and language problems? How do these two criteria play a role together and how can this be tested in recurring studies?