Essay on Effects of Corporal Punishment on Children

Why Spanking Children is Wrong Parents have been spanking their children for hundreds of years, but recently this practice has come into question. The concern is not regarding the effectiveness of spanking but the correctness of spanking. Parents should not be allowed to strike their children. Child abuse is defined as any unnecessary or intentional physical or emotional or sexual mistreatment of children. Spanking is not the only method of child discipline. Spanking is not even the most effective method of child discipline. Numerous studies have made it evident that spanking does have a negative effect on children. Spanking children should be considered child abuse because it teaches children the wrong message about hitting, it does not

Spanking kids leads to depression (“9 things to do Instead of Spanking”,2016). Multiple studies show that teens are more likely to aggression, depression, and drug use when they are hit as kids. They don’t know any better than being hit. They also will think it is okay to hit others. Spanking makes kids feel insecure and leads to self-esteem problems.

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.

Hitting Kids: American Parenting and Physical Punishment. (2014, November 6). Retrieved September 14, 2015, from http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/social-mobility-memos/posts/2014/11/06-parenting-hitting-mobility-reeves

Parents have the toughest job in the world trying to raise and support their children, while teaching them right from wrong. The subject of disciplining children, and which methods are most effective, is certainly one that has been around a very long time. Possibly the most controversial method is spanking: hitting a child with an open hand on their bottom or extremities to cause pain, but not injury, to correct or control the child's behavior. Spanking is one method of discipline that has no place in our society because it teaches children that hitting is acceptable, negatively affects the child's moral internalization, and is detrimental to the child's mental health.

Can spanking, be harmful to children? The ethics and cultural influences affect the use of spanking as a punishment. Spanking is controversial because it can be viewed as corporal punishment that can have a negative affect on children. Others believe that it is a moral act to use with no detrimental effects. Spanking is sometimes considered corporal punishment and is used to alter an undesirable behavior without physically injuring the child.

Some parents think spanking a child is abuse when the parent hits a child for something he or she has done wrong like talking back to the parents. However, there are many parents who call it discipline. While some parents say it is a form of child abuse when children are spanked. Some caretakers never spank or hit children in their care as a means of discipline. Some parents are unaware of the types of problems they expose their children to if they hit them in order to discipline.

Spanking has become an arguably debatable form of discipline. According to a study at the University of Texas, the more children are spanked, the more likely they are to defy their parents (“Spanking: Pros and Cons”). There is a connection between spanking during the childhood and mental health diagnoses later in life. There are other options of discipling your child than spanking them, especially because all children can take spanking differently. Parents should not spank their child because it showers that being “stronger” is right, demonstrates that older people have a right to hit younger people, and gives the examples that violence solves all problems.

Children should not be spanked because there is no actual reason to hurt a child. One of the reasons that there is no reason to hit a child is because it would be cruel to hit a child since they are not pleased after getting spanked. There are also more effective actions a parent could take such as reasoning, positive reinforcement and timeouts, further proving spanking as useless. Spanking could also lead to more aggression since children are being taught to be cruel. Spanking would just be hurtful to a child rather than teach them a lesson.

Spanking also humiliates the child, which may cause them to lash out as a way to rectify the humiliation, for example, a parent spanks a child in front of a sibling, so the child breaks the sibling’s toy as “revenge” for them witnessing their embarrassment. It also causes anger and resentment in children, which may cause them to behave aggressively. There is evidence that hitting children encourages them to become hitters themselves, in fact there is a direct correlation between being spanked in childhood and aggressive and violent behavior in teenage and adult years according to The Natural Child Project (naturalchild.org). This is because children are naturally inclined to imitate the actions they

Beacause spanking a child may be effective for a while it can escalade. The parent will often repeat this action every time the child misbehaves. Corporal punishment may become an “everyday” action which can lead to an increasingly normal and harsher spanking can exceed the reasonable force and later turn into abuse. “85% of all cases of physical abuse result from some form of over discipline through the use of corporal punishment” this means that 85% of cases of abuse have started from a simple spanking and escaladed. That being said, after spanking has led to more this action can unintentionally cause serious physical damage. A child that is hit can accidentally fall and injure themselves. Hitting a child’s hand can cause premature osteoarthritis, injure bones, blood vessels, joints and ligaments. Spanking a child can cause death, injure the tail bone, the sciatic nerve, and even injure muscles. Hitting the ear can burst the ear

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.

Spanking Is Violence I. Introduction A. Violence is physical harm done to another individual, through aggressive behavior. So, what do we call picking up a belt, slapping, hitting and striking the child with an item? I want to challenge your minds and hearts to dig deep when you were being hit by your parents or guardians, was it truly out of love, love does not beat you, physically or mentally. B. Out of this Speech class, 97% of you were spanked and 3% were not, so majority of you have experienced physical punishment for something that you’ve done. C. I’m credible to give this speech because of the strenuous amount of research I conducted on this topic.

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

Corporal punishment is the stopping of unwanted child behavior by a parent by causing the child to feel physical discomfort. It includes spankings, slapping and beatings, fist, or object such as a belt, switch, hangers, and cord. In other words, a punishment by hitting. Others think the opposite it is effective. Therefore, if there’s no punishment towards the children their going to keep doing undesirable behavior and throw tantrums. However, in this case parents have control and show their children who’s in control and who commands. Hitting with belts, cords, and hangers is not the only solution there’s way to discipline. Imagine if there was not corporal punishment. How will the children turn out once they get older? Just think about it. Yes, corporal punishment towards children is effective because it prevents mistakes from repeating frequently, parents have control, and rational way to discipline.