Spanking: Cons
The Authorities Weigh In
Recent polls on Early Childhood jumped out immediately against corporal punishment (spanking). At the end of the poll, those parents against spanking and those who freely admitted using spanking as a tool for correcting undesirable behavior were in a dead heat.
The battle and discussion raged on for weeks. Today, we’ll take a look together at the work of researchers and legal groups who’ve stated their case against the use of corporal punishment.
One of the issues most out spoken detractors, Dr. Murray Straus is an adamant voice for those who believe spanking is physically and mentally damaging to children. Straus, a University of California-Berkeley professor, asserts spanking can lead to disruptive behavior in school, depression and criminal activity in adulthood.
What leads Straus to these conclusions: Research and studies.
In one project, which followed children with serious behavior problems, found the children improved after parents stopped spanking.
Straus is a proponent of using alternative discipline techniques such as:
- Setting clear standards
- Providing lots of love and affection
- Explaining things to a child
- Recognizing and rewarding good behavior
Reacting to parents who cite using spanking as a last resort, Straus reports, is often a manifestation of their own frustration…and they're hitting out of control and in anger. Straus also cites the pervasiveness of spanking from the National Family Violence Surveys of 1975 and 1985, which found 90% of participants spank 3 year-old children, a statistic over-whelming abhorrent to him.
Straus delineates the legal distinction between child abuse and corporal punishment by defining the latter as “the use of physical force with the intention of causing the child pain, but not injury, for the purpose of correction or control of the child’s behavior.”
In 2005, a group of Canadians took a stand against Corporal Punishment by asking legislators to make spanking against the law. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has also urged Canada to ban the use of corporal punishment. Many Scandinavian and West European nations have already made this step.
Just last month, a California legislator announced she would introduce a bill making corporal punishment in California illegal. Ohio’s Center for Effective Discipline sponsors a national SpankOut day every April 30. Nadine Block, director of the group, states parents should begin by erasing the idea of discipline from their minds and instead think about teaching a child and trying to teach kids empathy – how their behavior affects you and others.
Tomorrow: Parenting Authorities condoning the use of spanking!
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