Link Between Corporal Punishment And Child Physical Abuse

Most parents want to raise their kids to be well disciplined. This can prove to be a challenging task, depending on the temperament of the child or children that they are raising. Therefore, spanking, a form of corporal punishment, becomes a parent’s way of disciplining their child. Today, the practice of spanking is not as widely accepted as it was in the past. The big question is whether or not this change in social norms is more or less effective in the lives of children?

Spanking has several effects on the children, which build numerous opinions among the people. Researchers have shown many positive and negative sides of physical punishment. There are several people that agree with spanking their children and there are others who are against punishing the children. Many of the parents who spank their children believe that spanking is sometimes acceptable because they believe it will make a positive effect on their behavior. Spanking is used to correct children’s behavior, but, many people feel that instead of bettering the child’s behavior, it makes it worse. Spanking has been an enormous issue in the past decades. Many children have been physically abused and many others have never experienced any

In this report, I concentrated my research on the fine line between physical discipline and child abuse, with emphasis on spanking vs. not spanking and its effects on children. Included are research from statistics, opposing views and arguments, advocates’ and Department of Children and Families’ position.

Melanie Barwick is a psychologist and health systems scientist in the Community Health Systems Resource Group at SickKids in Toronto, Canada. Barwick has studied the reasons why people choose to spank their children and the emotional effects that the sometimes harsh punishments will leave. In this source, it begins with talking about a new law that Canada is debating on establishing. The law consists of how parents should regulate the spanking age range from two to twelve years old, because that would be considered most “acceptable.” The article then proceeds to delve deeper into the psychological effects of harsh punishment on children and why most people consider it acceptable. Throughout the article there are many questions asked. Before

2011) Corporal punishment exhibited by parents onto children has been a topic in psychology for many decades. It has been reported that approximately 94% of American parents are spanking their children by the time they are 3 or 4 years old (Gershoff 2001). Whether or not this method has been effective has caused many uprising with opinion papers in the field of psychology. “The ongoing debate to whether the benefits of corporal punishment might outweigh any potential hazards; some have concluded that corporal punishment is both effective and desirable, whereas others have concluded that corporal punishment is ineffective at best and harmful at worst,” (Gershoff 2001). As stated before certain parenting styles enforce punishment onto their children if there is requirement not met or the child obedience falters though these children usually don’t turn out to be in the best emotional state as an adult (Ribeiro 2009). “Previous researches pointed out those adults (parents and teachers), who were physically punished in their childhood, are more supportive of corporal punishment than those who were not subjected to physical punishment” (Naz et al. 2011). This explains reasons in why punishment continues throughout a family’s generation, because as a child when corporal punishment or just punishments in

Those that are on the pro-spanking side of the discussion believe that to be successful, a child must “learn to obey legitimate authority” and this is often done by “powerful love, but equally powerful discipline” (Rosemond, 2005). John Rosemond believes that in order to be effective, punishment must have three qualities: be punitive, provide emotional discomfort, and create a lasting memory; and he believes that spanking is the correct combination of those qualities. In the eyes of most pro-spankers, spanking is not physical abuse, but merely a tool to elicit respect. As aforementioned, Rosemond believes that love is always at the root of spanking (2005). As well, the belief is that this will raise well-behaved children that are not spoiled; since nowadays what is considered love is “nothing more than indulging, enabling, and rescuing”

In the other side, parents who agree argument that “Spanking is not laziness and it teaches children consequences for their actions” “disrespectful youth today shows what happens when necessary spanking is forgotten” “Parent first; friend second” “you cannot fix a tree after is already bent”, etc. This side argues that is effective when children are defiant and try to overthrow the authority or who controls the situation. They argue that they do it for the own child good and even thought it feels unpleasant (obviously) it will shape a conscious character for the future (if you use it correctly). For example, [2] the University of California, Berkeley, who followed healthy middle-class white families prospectively for 15 years, showed families where parents occasionally employed spanking (defined as one or two open swats on the bottom of a child between the ages of two and six) as one form of discipline within an otherwise

They will accept their punishment and comply in a short amount of time (“10 Prevailing Pros...” 1-2). A child will respect authority when they know every wrongdoing gets some kind of physical consequence, and the child will not repeat bad behaviors by reinforcement (1). A mother remembers fearing the paddle, which she says is a good thing. When the crime meets the punishment, she feels that there would be fewer bad children if more parents did spank. In one year, ninety-four percent of three and four year olds have been spanked. Seventy-four percent of mothers think spanking is alright for kids one to three (O’Callaghan 1). Compared to non-parents, parents view physical punishment as more common than people without children (Marcus 2-3). Majority of the population thinks that spanking is barbaric basing it off of abuses rather than the biblical model. Many parents who think that way have problems at home including conflicts all the time, loss of control, and no way to fix the problems. Since opposers buy into the stereotypical model of spanking where out-of-control parents and religious extremists beat children instead of disciplining them, they reject the entire idea. Because parents do not know how to spank, they think spanking should not be done at all (Ingram 3), but “The Bible never implies that the rod of discipline should be violent”

The theory of discipline has been debated for decades. Arguments over how it should be carried out and how harsh it should be has been discussed. One aspect of discipline has been shoved into the dark, the effect on the child. No matter how much it is spoken of children remember what happened to them in their childhood. Whether they were pleasant or not can lead to problems later in life. One debate that shall soon be settled deals with the spanking of children.

This site is an online article clip from a book published by The American Psychological Society. Within this article are the discussion of different views on spanking, key conclusions about its effects, and the methodological limitations of the research and resulting points as to why it’s under current debate. This is an extremely reliable source, due to the fact that it is a well-known society and was also written by students of one of the tops schools in the USA. Discussed

Corporal punishment, or otherwise known as spanking, has been a topic of discussion for many years. Opinions on whether corporal punishment should be accepted into society have lingered considering there are so many variables that cause people to have diverse opinions about the subject. It should not be a surprise that most studies prove when parents favor corporal punishment, they tend to be more likely to use it with their children (Flynn, 1998). Not only does the age of a person being surveyed affect opinions on physical punishment, but religion is also a huge factor when it comes to supporting corporal punishment. Multi-generations could potentially all have different views on the use of corporal punishment, like

Corporal punishment is a technique that has been embedded and passed down from each generation. In the past, it was almost seen as an invisible concern to society and the retributions of the effects it may have on the upbringing of a child is only now, a current rising area of concern. (Straus, 1994). A survey that was conducted in Toronto presented that 75% of the subjects supported corporal punishment in their homes when disciplining their children. (Straus, 1994). Burns (1993) investigated the effectiveness of corporal punishment and found that there was no supporting evidence to prove that corporal punishment enhanced the

Studies going as far back as the 60’s reflect a negative outcome on physical or corporal punishment that it is suggested that it is avoided. In a study done in 2009 showed that children of mothers who used little to no corporal

One of the greatest debates that are surrounding corporal punishment is whether it should be used or not while raising a child. Those who are against this form of punishment claim that it teaches children to become more aggressive and that studies have shown that spanking leads to negative behaviors in children including antisocial behaviors, moral internalization and inappropriate behavior. They argue that corporal punishment is demeaning and humiliating and leads to greater problems rather than solving smaller ones. (Stacks, Oshio, Gerard & Roe, 2009)

Every effort is made to distribute our findings so that all of the public cannot ignore the wholesale infliction of pain and suffering onto our school children, and the role “paddling” schools play in teaching our children that physically aggressive and coercive resolutions of conflict are legitimate. Contributing to the problem of violence by making children feel rejected and isolated, corporal punishment is unsafe in and of itself, but its discriminate application may be co-incident with problems unique to racial and gender identity and esteem, as well as academic and social confidence and competence.