A recent study may be the strongest proof yet that corporal punishment does more harm than good. Longstanding conventional wisdom holds that a quick pop on the bottom is the best way to get a child’s attention. But researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Texas found quite the opposite–it can actually do lasting harm to children.
Texas’ Elizabeth Gershoff and Michigan’s Andrew Grogan-Taylor conducted a meta-analysis of 75 studies covering 160,000 kids over a 50-year period. Apparently they were well aware that their research would be criticized as more mealy-mouthed nonsense from pointy-headed liberals, because they defined spanking very narrowly–“hitting a child on their buttocks or extremities using an open hand.” They also included a large variety of experiments–controlled experimental studies, longitudinal studies, and cross-sectional studies.
Gershoff told CBS News that despite the size of the sample, the data was “incredibly consistent” on one thing–there is a correlation between spanking and bad behavior. More importantly, there is “absolutely no correlation between spanking and positive outcomes.” According to Gershoff, spanking not only doesn’t improve behavior, but can actually lead to worse behavior in the long run. She also found that spanked kids tend to be aggressive and antisocial.
Put another way, this study is hard proof of something that opponents of corporal punishment, including yours truly, have been saying for a long time–spanking tells kids that violence is an acceptable solution. Gershoff says as much, noting that when parents spank their kids for being aggressive, “the child thinks you can use spanking to get what you want.” The study also found that kids who are spanked are very likely to have have mental health problems later in life. They also have lowered self-esteem and poor relationships with their parents.
Even in the face of such overwhelming proof, it doesn’t look like the debate over spanking will let up any time soon, as this debate on Thursday’s edition of “Fox & Friends” revealed.
According to psychologist Darby Fox, spanking doesn’t really teach kids anything. As she sees it, it shames them rather than make the connection kids need to change their behavior. Fellow psychologist Tom Kersting, however, thinks that there are times when parents need to get a little firm with kids. He believes that parents have been far too lenient in recent years.
You know what the most common response will be to this–“It doesn’t matter what these pointy-headed liberals say, the Bible says ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’!” But closer analysis reveals that the Hebrew word for “rod” almost always referred to using our authority to teach our kids the right way–not physically beat them.
When I first saw this, I remembered reading that when he was a kid, Lance Armstrong was frequently spanked by his stepfather. However, all those paddlings didn’t stop Armstrong from taunting opponents at youth triathlons and bike races. It also didn’t stop him from outbursts of temper during races and training rides, such as hurling bikes across the road. And it didn’t keep him from turning into a self-absorbed punk who was willing to do anything to win–including dope–and bully anyone who dared speak against him into silence.
From where I’m sitting, Armstrong appears to be a textbook example of why spanking doesn’t work. And this study offers hard, scientific proof that it doesn’t work.
