In America, approximately 60% of adults continue to approve of physical punishment to discipline children, in spite of compelling evidence that it does not work. Corporal punishment makes things worse and there are other, effective alternatives to spanking. Corporal punishment is the use of physical force with the intention to cause the child to experience physical pain in order to correct or punish the child for their behavior. This includes spanking, hitting, pinching, paddling, whipping, slapping, etcetera. We are not allowed to hit our spouse or even a stranger, so why is it ok to hit a child?
Of the 37 countries worldwide that have prohibited corporal punishment in all settings, including the home, the United States is not one of them. Some of these countries include; Sweden, Germany, Spain, Greece, and Venezuela. More than 100 countries have banned corporal punishment in schools. In the United States, corporal punishment is still legal in 19 states. While the United States has not banned corporal punishment, approval of corporal punishment has declined over the last 40 years.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics: “Corporal punishment is of limited effectiveness and has potentially deleterious side effects. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents be encouraged and assisted in the development of methods other than spanking for managing undesired behavior”.
While corporal punishment leads to more immediate complaint behavior in children, it is also associated with physical abuse. This would lead one to conclude that using corporal punishment to discipline children does more harm than good. Many studies have shown that physical punishment, to include spanking, hitting, and other means of causing pain, can lead to increased aggression, anti-social behavior, injury, and mental health problems for children.
Corporal punishment in ineffective. It is a risk factor for greater forms of physical abuse and it can negatively impact the behavioral and cognitive development of children. Spanking does not teach or guide the child, it just forces them to obey. Nothing positive can come from physically punishing a child. The child is not learning from the aggression. They are learning to be aggressive.
Children who are spanked progressively become more aggressive over time. They are aggressive with their siblings, friends, and eventually with their spouses and children. These children may feel depressed and devalued. Corporal punishment can lead to lying in children to avoid being spanked. Being physical punished as a child has been linked to mental illness later in life. Spankers breed spankers. Adults who were physically punished as children are more likely to use corporal punishment to discipline their own children. Corporal punishment damages the parent-child relationship. The child will grow up believing that aggression is common in relationships with loved ones. The physically punished child passes on their aggression to their children, who pass it on to theirs.
Currently, no state has a law that explicitly bans corporal punishment in the home. In most states, there are laws with specific language in their statutes on abuse, assault, battery, or domestic violence that make exceptions for spanking by a caregiver. Spanking is parenting technique that reflects more on poor coping skills of the caregiver than on the behavior of the child. Spanking is carried on from generation to generation.
There is a spectrum of severity as with many behavior. Anything from a light slap on the back of the hand to holding a child’s foot in scalding water is technically corporal punishment. The American Academy of Pediatrics describes spanking as “striking a child with an open hand on the buttocks or extremities with the intention of modifying behavior without causing physical.
