Spanking is one of the disciplinary techniques, which has been used for centuries to control and correct the behavior of children. However, increasing number of incidents connected with violence toward children at home and at school, child abuse, etc. , led to increased public attention to the issue of spanking children. Recently, a great deal of various studies and experts’ opinions on the problem was publicized in the media.
John Rosemond, an experienced American family psychologist, calls this public discussion “the Great Spanking Debate” (Rosemond 2). Specialists say that spanking is quite a popular disciplinary method nowadays.According to Barbara Howard, a quarter of American parents are reported to spank their babies. 71% of mothers and 77% of fathers spank their 12-24-month-olds. However, children aged between 3 and 6 years are spanked most, and 90% of parents reported about using this technique to discipline their preschoolers.
Then, the amounts of spanking decline, and only 60% of 10-12-year-olds, 40% of 14-year-olds, and finally, 25% of teenagers aged between 15 and 17 are spanked by their parents (Howard 54). There are a lot of opponents and proponents of spanking children, who have a variety of strong arguments to support their opinion.Those, who are against spanking usually say that corporal punishment can be very harmful to sensitive child’s psychology and cause various psychological or mental traumas. Thus, young children who are frequently spanked by their parents, demonstrate antisocial and aggressive behavior, have lower self-esteem and self-confidence, suffer from depression, have lack of social success, and so on. At the same time, the supporters of spanking are convinced that using physical punishment in reasonable amounts can be a very effective tool to make children change their negative behavior, which caused the punishment.The advocates of this disciplinary technique underline that the main idea is not to do a lot of spanking and demonstrate aggression or disrespect to children.
It is also very important to make children understand clearly, what the reason of the punishment was and what exactly the child did wrong. Another important argument of those, who are in opposition to corporal punishment, is the idea that spanking affects parents-child relationships, so children who are frequently spanked feel less connected with their parents.Moreover, when parents use a lot of physical punishment, they can turn into the models of violent and aggressive behavior for their children. Therefore, such children can develop an opinion that spanking and physical aggression is the best way to achieve the desired goals. In this context, the supporters of spanking argue that the example that parents set to their children is really very important.
And when a fair and not abusive spanking is used for setting the things right, children will understand that and learn positive lessons from spanking.As a known supporter of spanking, John Rosemond comments in his book “To Spank or Not to Spank? as the following: “Properly administered… spankings do not, as the media cooperatively announce, cause children to lose trust in and become fearful of their parents” (Rosemond 14). Besides, the proponents of spanking are convinced that many parents use spanking mostly because they were also spanked by their mothers and fathers when they were children. Therefore, they rely on the experience of their own parents and use the same disciplinary techniques and parenting styles. Moreover, the majority of modern parents who were spanked as kids agree that spanking was actually an effective and reasonable technique of discipline.
In addition, it is proven that spanking is a very good disciplinary tool for toddlers and preschoolers, especially when it is used as a support of other non-painful forms of disciplining. In young ages children not always can react on reasoning and other verbal disciplinary techniques, and a lot of things they do are messy or dangerous. They are simply testing, what is right and what is wrong, and parents’ reaction in the form of spanking is quite a good tool to make children understand, what is acceptable and what is not.Spanking can also assist in those situations, when alternative methods and disciplinary tools (such as reasoning, preaching, using eye contact, etc. ) can not be effective or do not work by some reasons. For example, when a child demonstrates an intention to run into busy traffic, a soft slap can be the best solution to calm him down and divert his attention from the road.
But, according to the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatricians, “…spanking should be used only in selective, infrequent situations” (USA Today).Some opponents of spanking claim that children must not be spanked because they are not their parents’ property, so spanking may violate children’s personal rights. Undoubtedly, defending children’s rights is important, but, at the same time, children can not be considered miniature adults, so they are not able to reason their behavior and feel full responsibility for what they do. That is why spanking must not be understood as personal insult to children or physical cruelty, but rather as a warning sign and an effective supportive measure for other various disciplinary techniques and methods.There were not many researches studying the effects of spanking very young children (toddlers and infants) on possible future behavioral problems, because the majority of the researches were focused on children older than 18-24 months.
At the same time, Caroline Wellbery reports that recently, it was proven that spanking babies and young children actually does not have substantial negative impact and does not cause problematic behavior of such children after they reach the age of four.The researches studied about 2,000 families in the context of various factors, including frequency of spanking, parent-child interaction, the child’s personality traits, ethnicity and family backgrounds, and so on. Four years later, the children and parents were interviewed, and it turned out that only the children of non-Hispanic mothers tended to have higher Behavior Problem Index (BPI), but in Hispanic and black families children were not reported to develop some serious behavioral problems.However, it was noticed that Hispanic and black mothers were less likely to spank their children, they had closer personal connections with their children and generally were spending more time with them.
Therefore, the authors concluded that there is hardly a casual link between spanking young children and behavioral problems, because the influence of parenting, household and other factors must be considered not less important for proper development of children. In other words, spanking is not a key factor for possible behavioral problems in children (Wellbery 35).As we can see, even scientific researches prove that spanking can not affect children’s development and behavior. Reasonable spanking, supported with a lot of love, trust, connection, patience and consistency, can be an appropriate and effective disciplinary technique. In a short-term run and in dangerous situations, spanking can help in stimulating positive changes in child’s behavior.
An in a long-term run, spanking is not associated with any behavioral, psychological or developmental risks.In conclusion, it is necessary to say that the only place where spanking should be banned is our schools. It is known that a great deal of teachers still spank their students. Many experts are sure that school spanking should be prohibited since “.
. it sends children the message that physical abuse by authority figures can be acceptable and it can be applied inconsistently” (USA Today, 2007). But in family context, spanking children (as long as it does not turn into child abuse) has to be considered an appropriate method of discipline.Works Citedhttp://www.drphil.com/articles/article/256
