A new comprehensive study of spanking claims that children who are spanked are more likely to defy their parents, exhibit anti-social behaviors, and experience mental health problems.
Researchers with the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan partnered together to analyze fifty years of spanking studies. The analysis, published in the Journal of Family Psychology, appears to confirm the negative effects of spanking found by previous researchers.
“Spanking makes children’s behavior worse,” lead author Elizabeth T. Gershoff told The Chicago Tribune. “It has the opposite effect than what parents want: It doesn’t make children better-behaved, and it doesn’t teach children right from wrong. It’s not related to immediate compliance, and it doesn’t make children behave better in the future.”
Gershoff, an associate professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, worked with Andrew Grogan-Kaylor, an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. The researchers found that across different age groups spanking seems to be an ineffective tool, often associated with increased aggression, troubled behaviors, anxiety, and depression. Children who are spanked are also more likely to spank their own children.
Gershoff and Grogan-Kaylor’s study specifically examines the effects of spanking alone. “We took all the data that focuses just on spanking, which we defined as swatting a child on the behind with an open hand,” Gershoff said.
To parents who say they were spanked and turned out fine, Gershoff cautions, “We turned out OK because our parents did other things, like sat us down at the kitchen table and talked to us and gave us reasons why they wanted to see us behave. We turned out OK in spite of spanking, not because of it.”
The Tribune reports that corporal punishment is banned in close to 50 countries, including Germany, Spain, Kenya, Denmark and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The 2013 book The Primordial Violence also examined the issue of spanking, studying four decades of research before concluding that spanking slows cognitive development and increases antisocial and criminal behavior.
Psychiatrist Paul Holinger, founder of Chicago’s Center for Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, told The Chicago Tribune that the wide acceptance of spanking children stems from “our history of treating children as property.”
Holinger may be onto something. If the free hearts and minds of the world only awake to government and corporate tyranny we are missing the point of this awakening. To be consistent, compassionate, moral, and just, we ought to encourage more parents to spread the evolutionary idea that children deserve protection. We must remember that we cannot create a world that is free of systemic violence if we continue to raise future generations with an authoritative hand. If the studies are correct, than an abused child is more likely to abuse others and to internalize that abuse into a possible life of anger and crime. If the abused child is arrested they will find themselves a victim of further abuse via the State’s criminal “justice” system. Thus the cycle of abuse, pain, violence, and imprisonment continues.
As more and more people awaken to the philosophy of freedom and evolutionary change from bottom up, we are beginning to challenge all the norms of our world. This includes the way we raise our children. Some of you may have heard the term peaceful parenting. Simply put, peaceful parenting involves removing the violence from your communication and relationship with your children.
According to Peaceful Parent.com, the key principles of the peaceful parenting approach are based on a combination of:
- research findings from attachment science,
- providing a safe environment for children to feel and express strong emotions,
- active listening skills,
- maintaining the heart connection, warmth and open lines of communication,
- facilitating problem-solving and creating agreements,
- using “I” statements for parents to express feelings and requests non-aggressively,
- setting limits with calm clarity while maintaining empathy for any consequent upset,
- parent owns their strong feelings to avoid escalation and to model how to manage emotions, and
- a deeper understanding of the feelings and unmet needs which drive a child’s behaviour
(For more information on Peaceful Parenting Check out EverythingVoluntary.com)
How can we tell the world about the immorality and injustice of State and corporate violence if we turn around and use violence on our loved ones? It’s time to live a consistent principled life. It starts with the way you treat yourself and the way parents choose to raise the next generation of free hearts and minds.
Derrick Broze is an investigative journalist and liberty activist. He is the Lead Investigative Reporter for ActivistPost.com and the founder of the TheConsciousResistance.com. Follow him on Twitter.
Derrick is available for interviews.
This article may be freely reposted in part or in full with author attribution and source link.
I’m older than some out there. I was spanked growing up, not only at home but at school too. I don’t ever remembering that I didn’t deserve it. It didn’t make me behave worse or give me mental or emotional problems. Getting beat by an overly aggressive authority figure is different. But I know it’s hard to draw the line here. I do agree the time out method for correcting children works better for almost everyone.
This is complete and utter hogwash, as it assumes that kids cannot learn. Avoiding being spanked is a real thing that stimulates attention to doing what is right and behaving. To assume that it mostly works the other way smells greatly of liberal thinking, the usual emanations from their rear.
The basic assumption of this study is that parents will raise their kids the way they were raised. This may be true to some degree, but intelligent people sort out what is good and bad and keep the parts that are good.
I was spanked regularly after a clear statement, sometimes too long and too clear, of what I had done wrong. Only once with a dog whip. It worked very well and I am not unbalanced, tortured, or suppressed in any way. AND, I did not spank my kids, who are now grown adults with great jobs. I found no reason to spank my kids but did identify the need for strictness and clearly communicating and explaining infractions to my kids.
I did learn how to endure pain, particularly because my mother chose to use belts ( I got to chose the belt) to whip me rather than her hand. I learned how to take the pain as I really hate crying, it’s just too much of a loser activity. So, I won in the end, got tougher, and learned. Just because I survived it and it worked out for me does NOT mean that I would impose it on others, as I did not on my kids.
hmm a university study that surprisingly (sarcasm) says spanking doesn’t work makes one wonder if it was conducted by a bunch of progressives. One cannot take the face value of “scientific research” these days for granted without considering; who, why, what, how, and where this research was done. Universities are supposed to be non biased but over the past few decades they increasing have been bought out for political and corporate goals as they are directly funded by those entities desiring studies with biased outcomes. Unless funding of so called “scientific research” at universities is somehow given immunity from the very real threat of the removal of the funding of research by these entities if negative research is done, all research must be scrutinised. Especially for the aforementioned with a fine tooth comb to determine if said research is really “scientific” rather than a biased pseudo “scientific” paper created in order to maintain funding from the very sources who request the research. This conflict of interest is turning “scientific research” into nothing but biased propaganda that helps serve an agenda.
It appears they didn’t apply the switch to the right place out behind the wood-shed. I know it works. I was raised by g’parents back in the day when children were seen not heard!!!
What a bunch of bullshit. I was spanked by both my parents, reprimanded at greek parochial school by any means necessary. My two sisters were also spanked. The article also goes on to mubble about low cognizance and poor performance in a persons later years from spanking. Let me see, my one sister became a patent lawyer ( two degrees involved) one in the sciences ,one in law. Other sister NYC public school teacher/guidance counselor. Myself ,ex-airborne-special forces,union sheetmetal worker/foreman. The people that did the study in my opinion need a GOOD THRASHING!!!!!.
Your last sentence is entirely predictable coming from you. This is what spanking kids does, it condones violence and teaches kids to be violent bullies. Yeah, go thrash some folks, always a great idea, except it doesn’t ever change their opinion.
I spanked my kids, but in Godly biblical Chastening ways. Explained why they were getting spanked, and never did it while at the height of anger. Biblical Truths and training are what this world is lacking. ALL my kids graduated with at least Bachelors degree, one with a Master’s and have never been to jail, and now one has her own kids now.. THIS humanist garbage has got to go. I will remain true to the KJV 1611
Hitting your kids only teaches them to be bullies and that violence wins. No wonder most Christians are not giants of mental health. Yeah, keep your King James krap, you do know he was gay, right? Look it up.
“Spare the rod spoil the child” must certainly be Satan’s greatest victory…. Right inside the Bible!
How many children have had their soul and personalities destroyed because of a single line that a psychopath finds in the Bible to justify barbaric brutality against defenceless young children?!
The only reason an adult may want to beat up on little kids is because they are emotionally too weak and mentally too stupid
to engage the young person.
It is definitely a sign of lowered intelligence and a mental inability to develop a mutually respectful relationship with the children that drives an “adult” to revert to violence against the small and defenceless child.
What reason could there EVER be to use violence on children? ……Because they did not grovel to the exalted presence of the adult? ……To force them to conform into the good little slave template? To force them into this idiotic, dumbed down, Pavlovian, drone conditioning type of schooling aberration?
Subconsciously children realise that this abnormal, delusional school system is crushing their spirit but the generations have become just too thick in the skull to begin to liberate the children from the shackles and offer them realistic, useful education.
ALL children are always so eager to engage with their parents and other adults. They are so dependent on acknowledgement and cheerful interaction with the “gods at the centre of their universe”. It is extremely exhilarating to see the radiant gratitude in the little face from the smallest, but genuine, expression of approval. Conversely, children are extremely sensitive to emotional fakery and the result will always be disrespect from the child. Trying to then beat “respect” into the child is a repulsive, abhorrent form of self gratification by the “adult”.
People who sprout coy little lines like “ I was spanked and I’m ok” have absolutely no idea of the loss they have incurred from parents and “teachers” who were too wooden and obtuse to nurture the treasure in the individuality.
Spanking and other physical punishment often results in the child resenting and hating the parent(s). The child is more likely to misbehave covertly, too.