Many of us were spanked as a child. Some schools even were able to spank people. Now, it seems to be going out of fashion. Many people say that spanking has a lasting effect on the child’s brain and psyche. Many of them say that it is child abuse.
This is a confusing issue because we were told it was because our parents love us, and they were trying to get us to behave. Children do not always learn anything at the moment they are being spanked. Their brain goes into “danger” mode.
A man in Scottsboro, Alabama got arrested for spanking his grandchildren. He is now facing two counts of domestic violence. James Chapman, a 73-year-old grandfather, was having lunch with his grandchildren at McDonald’s. His attorney is planning to fight it in court; he will argue that parents are within their rights to discipline children as they see fit.
The attorney, Justin Lackey said:
“Someone butted in on a situation and overreacted to what was really a minor thing.”
Spanking may seem like a good way to discipline a little one, but some scientists are finding out that this can have long-term effects on the child.
Parents use spanking to stop bad behavior and increase good behaviors. Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D., a psychologist writing for Psychology Today says that spanking is ineffective because:
“Approaching this from a behaviorist perspective, conditioning by punishment (pain) requires that the consequence always always occurs immediately after every instance. When you touch a hot stove with a bare hand, you get burned, period. This does not occur with the behaviors parents spank for—parents are often not around to see them or are not willing or able to spank immediately afterwards.”
Another psychologist, Dr. Diana Baumrind, said that mild spanking is ok. She is talking about the occasional swat on the behind, not an actual drawn out spanking. She said:
”When parents are loving and firm and communicate well with the child… the children are exceptionally competent and well adjusted, whether or not their parents spanked them as preschoolers.”
This study drew from the Family Socialization and Developmental Competence Project. It followed families over a period of twelve years. She did not find evidence that spanking is harmful. Some children that were spanked more often (three times a week or more) did have emotional effects. It shouldn’t be used that often.
Here is a panel of parents talking about the issue on the Steve Harvey show:
Featured image by Ashley Webb via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
