With new upcoming generations and a changing society, traditional practices of how people live are changing; arguably for the better or worse. Some of these changes include the controversial to spank or not to spank question, in which new studies are aiming to show the effects of spanking on children. “With more than 30 years of research, we can now visualize accurately how spanking can alter a child’s perception.” (Scrock 2009) Although spanking has been the “go-to” way of discipline, it is starting to be looked on as a form of child abuse. After all, there are great reasons as to why organizations like the American Psychological Association and American Academy of Pediatrics condemn spanking. We will talk about the problems spanking causes in children, the misconception on why parents do it, and how to properly discipline your child. This essay argues that parents should not spank their child and should instead turn to other measures of discipline.
To being, one must understand that there can be many definitions for the term spanking. This is a common problem, as many people have their own view on how “extreme” spanking is. Without a proper definition of spanking, readers and listeners may be confused and mislead. This also creates flexibility for those individuals who may not know what is considered to be spanking; abuse; discipline. For example, one may believe paddling is a form of abuse, while others think it is a form of discipline. Most people tend to define
Spanking Isn’t Child Abuse, It’s Common Sense, by Ruban Navarrette deals with one of the biggest controversies in parenting ever since the twenty-first century: spanking your child. Ruban’s main point in this article is that fear is essential to respect and children won’t do what we tell them to do unless they fear
Spanking is classified as a corporal punishment, “corporal” means” of the body” ("Is 'Hot"). Spanking usually has an immediate effect on the child to comply (Online Psychology). To define spanking, it is an act of slapping usually on the buttocks. Instead of spanking parents could use another technique called hot saucing, hot sauce is put on the tongue of the child ("Is 'Hot"). Or putting the child in time out is also a suitable punishment without hitting or hurting the child.
Spanking is a fiercely debated social issue in many countries, such as the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, and Germany. There are questions over what intensity of pain is suitable until it crosses the threshold into abuse. Up until the mid-20th century it was perfectly okay in most communities for a spanking to cause a child to cry in pain throughout and have difficulty sitting down afterward, even resulting in stripes or bruises for days. Nowadays several think even mere redness of the skin abusive, while others would call it effective discipline. This causes questions as to whether children should be spanked. In addition, whether spanking is an effective method of discipline and at what point does it constitutes child abuse.
Many people believe that "a quick swat" from them to their child sends a clear message and is effectual discipline when included with loving remarks and in consistent fashion. I believe this view is the best way to help us understand the question: "is it ever appropriate to spank a child?" I believe that the answer that most definitely does not solve this question is that disciplining a child with spanking is alright when nothing else will work, or when the parent has "had enough." This could lead to abuse and/or psychosocially damaging discipline sessions. The context is that all-important factor that defines whether the discipline is appropriate or not. Unfortunately, many parents may have inherited foolish discipline
While this review of literature on spanking children is limited in finding evidence in supporting spanking, the research available that opposes spanking is rather compelling. The findings from the reviewed articles provide advice to parents, both new and long-time, on how to discipline their children if they want their children to have the best outcomes. The studies that have been reviewed are only a small amount of what has been published regarding the negative impacts that spanking can have on children. Additionally, this research may be a start for a move in society to begin viewing spanking as a negative child-rearing practice. While there is a lot more research that could be reviewed on this topic, high levels of aggression, behavioral problems, and
Spanking is swatting or hitting your child on the buttocks. It can be with an open hand or with an object. You can also spank a child on their hands or spank them on their legs. Spanking is ineffective as a discipline
Spanking is subjective in the least. Most parents suggest that using spankings as a form of discipline is essential to the development of a compliant child. For most Americans, this truth is one of the core foundations of the American model home. “70% of mothers indicated they had spanked their child at least once by the time he or she was 2-years-old” (Lee, Altschul and Gershoff, 2015.) There are numerous amounts of evidence that point to the certainty that spanking is linked to child aggression. In,
Spanking has been a controversial topic among many parents. Some believe it is just a form of discipline and is okay, while others believe that this is abuse or violence and it will harm the child in the long run.
A recent study shows 70 percent of parents believe it is right to discipline a child through physical means. Most commonly, parents will spank their children but being hit with things like belts or other objects happens as well. Parenting methods haven’t changed much with time and discipline in similar no matter the country. With more studies out to find the most effective method of parenting and discipline it’s coming to attention whether or not physical harm is the best way to teach children. Parents want what is best for their children, so it is important to constantly bring up and question methods commonly accepted in the past. One method that is becoming more controversial is spanking children. Though it is still considered normal to do, it is gaining more traction and more studies are being done to find the problems it causes. Checking on parenting methods can be difficult as everyone is raised differently. It is also difficult to test which forms of punishment lead to certain outcomes. However, there is a trend of negative effects from hitting. Gershoff acknowledges, “several national professional organizations have called on parents to abandon spanking as a child rearing practice and for professionals to recommend disciplinary alternatives to spanking.” Spanking children is a terrible discipline method as it has negative effects.
The term corporal punishment means the intentional infliction of pain on the body for purposes of punishment. "Spanking can be defined as the use of physical force aimed at causing children to experience pain but not injury, for the purposes of correction and control of youthful behavior"(http://www.123helpme.com/preview.asp?id=32539). Spanking is a controversial topic and should not be taken lightly.
Corporal punishment is using physical pain in response to behavior that has been deemed inappropriate. The AAP defines spanking as “striking a child with an open hand on the buttocks or extremities with the intention of modifying behavior without causing physical injury” (Jones
The authors also identify the known effects of spanking on childhood outcomes. They noted that most of the literature has been concerned with aggressive child outcomes, such as increased child stress reactivity (Bugenthal, Martorell, and Barraza, 2003). They also noted that studies are emerging on the connection between spanking and child cognitive outcomes. (Gershoff, 2010). They criticize these emerging works as suffering from a lack of "…adequate controls for the predictors of spanking, risk factors which themselves could be
Today, there is a common misconception that spanking is a form of child abuse. Some parents are actually afraid to discipline their own children using the same method used for their own upbringing. Who is correct in the notion of right and wrong discipline? Is there such a thing as a correct way to spank your child? In my opinion, there is. So, my objective is to show that there is a fine line between the two terms Spanking and Child abuse. A Cambridge Dictionary states that Child Abuse occurs “when adults intentionally treat children in a cruel or violent way.” On the other hand, Spanking in the same dictionary means “to hit a child with the hand, usually several times on the bottom as a punishment.” In this way, the line between the two can be drawn where too much spanking results in bruises and scars on the child. Therefore, parents should not spank their children when they are angry themselves as the spank would turn out to be an unintentional smack. When this occurs, parents tend to accidently take out their frustration on the child. Primarily, this is when Spanking, a form of discipline, starts drifting towards the entire concept of ‘child abuse’.
Many studies on cases of adults who have tendency to perpetuate abuses, either as a victim or as an abuser, are traced in the pattern of violence experienced at home, and many are reportedly experience being physically violated by spanking during their childhood. Despite the information and advocacy available in almost all media these days, there are still parents who thought that spanking their children to emphasize discipline is still beneficial. The benefits cited by those supporting spanking as acceptable method of discipline varied across culture and race. Generally, there are three views or positions about spanking as a form of discipline (Benject C. & Kazdin A, 2003) : Pro-corporal punishment, anti-corporal punishment, and conditional corporal punishment.
The second reason why spanking should not be done to children is the fact that it is a form of child abuse. At the moment, countries are divided as to legalize corporal punishment or create a law saying it is illegal. In the book written by Abela (2007) for the Council of Europe, she notes that “spanking of children less than two years old increases the risk of severe physical injury and the child is unlikely to understand the connection between behavior and punishment.” Most parents tend to go overboard when disciplining their children, especially when they are very angry and have not subdued their anger. This then makes the child their venting medium to get rid of that anger and sometimes, they do not apologize and even forget why they have done the deed. Other parents tend to make this a habit and even if the child did nothing wrong, they would still continue spanking the child. Eventually, the parents may slowly abuse the child through pain and totally make the child’s life a complete hell. As a result, child becomes frail and suffers psychological problems. Some countries, especially social services, use this as grounds to get the child away from the family and file cases of child abuse and physical injury that can lead to jail time if proven guilty. Spanking may also cause scarring and may be with the child