Last month, I had the opportunity to attend the
American Psychological Association (APA) convention in Honolulu. As usual, I am
re-energized after attending the sessions and learning about new perspectives
on science and psychological practice. While attending a talk on spanking and
children, it made me think back to all the conversations that I’ve had with
parents in my practice around the use of corporal punishment (which includes
domestic, school, and judicial). During the talk, Dr. Shawna Lee (assistant
professor at University of Michigan) and her colleagues presented data on the
frequency of parents that use spanking as a parenting strategy and highlighted
the effects of spanking on childhood outcomes (e.g., aggression and
compliance). Surprisingly, a high percentage of parents use spanking despite if
not being an effective long-term strategy to change behavior.
As a child psychologist, I often
discuss the impacts of spanking with parents. First, spanking tends to increase
aggressive behavior in children. Secondly, the research shows that spanking is
less effective to increase compliance than positive reinforcement. The pros and
cons of spanking have been discussed for decades yet many still see it as a
viable parenting strategy. Many times when
I bring this up with parents they respond, "I was spanked as a child and I
turned out fine". But what
does the research support?
During the APA symposium, Dr. Lee, stated that “spanking
has the iatrogenic effect of increasing the very child behaviors it is often
trying to reduce”. In a recent study
published in Development Psychology (Lee, S. J., Altschul, I., & Gershoff,
E. T., 2013), the authors found that maternal spanking at age 1 was associated with higher levels of
child aggression at age 3; and continues to be associated with aggression by
age 5. Furthermore, the study found that maternal warmth does not serve as a
protective factor against child behavior problems.
Being someone who is interested in early
intervention to prevent more severe behavior difficulties I felt armed with new
research findings that I could use in my own life and clinical practice. Overall,
the research does not support the use of spanking as an effective parenting
strategy and shows that it has significant negative outcomes for children.
Currently 31 countries (not including the United States) have recognized the
detrimental effects of spanking and have banned the use of corporal punishment
in the home. Yet, the U.S. does not have a national policy against spanking.
Furthermore, only a small percentage of states ban the use of corporal
punishment in school. What are your thoughts on spanking and corporal
punishment?
Copyright
2013 Erlanger A. Turner, Ph.D.
Note: A version of this was submitted to the Richmond
Times Dispatch.
