As noted elsewhere, many studies into the
effects of spanking have proven to be highly unreliable because they are largely
based on the researchers' interpretation of children's behavior. Such
interpretations are heavily subject to bias.
However, there are a few studies in which research bias is minimal or non-existent.
Four such investigations
conducted between 1996 and 2006 were longitudinal studies that extended over
decades:
All of the studies showed a link between childhood corporal punishment and
significant adverse effects in adulthood.
1996: Review of corporal punishment studies:
Robert E. Larzelere is the director of research at Boys Town, NE, and a
skeptic of the anti-spanking position. He analyzed what he considered to be the eight strongest
studies of corporal punishment (CP). 3 He found that they
showed that spanking and other forms of violence short of actual abuse had "beneficial
outcomes." However, the study seems almost without value when closely
examined:
Seven of the eight studies measured only the child's short term
compliance to the parent's request. There is probably a consensus
among therapists, child psychologists, researchers and parents that
spanking does make the child behave, at least for a little while. What these
studies did not examine are the long-term effects of spanking observed
by other studies: increasing non-compliance by the child, increased
anti-social behavior with other children, and
long range emotional and
addictive problems as an adult. It is worth noting that in five of the
seven cases, the effectiveness of spanking was compared to alternative
methods of discipline. Spanking offered no advantages.
The eighth study did show long-term beneficial results from
spanking. However it dealt only with a single child who had a severe
conduct disorder, and who might be suffering from schizophrenia. Thus,
one cannot extrapolate the study's results to the general population
of children. In addition, most of the study dealt with training the
mother to reinforce the child's positive behaviors and to be more
confident and consistent in issuing commands to the child. One might
speculate that an equivalent or even better beneficial result might have been
observed if the spanking were replaced by an alternative form of
discipline.
D.M. Fergusson and M.T. Lynskey of the Department of Psychological Medicine,
Christchurch School of Medicine, New Zealand completed a longitudinal study over
18 years of 1,265 children born in New Zealand. Youths who reported having
experienced harsh or abusive treatment during childhood had higher rates of
juvenile offending, substance abuse, and mental health problems. 13
The PubMed abstract states:
OBJECTIVE: To study the relationships between retrospective
reports of physical punishment/maltreatment and rates of adjustment difficulties
at age 18 in a birth cohort of New Zealand subjects.
METHOD: Data were gathered over the course of an 18 year
longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1,265 New Zealand born children. At age
18 retrospective reports of exposure to physical punishment/maltreatment were
obtained. At this time the cohort was also assessed on measures of psychosocial
adjustment juvenile offending, substance abuse behaviors, and psychiatric
disorder.
RESULTS: Young people reporting exposure to harsh or abusive
treatment during childhood had elevated rates of juvenile offending, substance
abuse, and mental health problems. However, subsequent analysis using logistic
regression methods showed that much of the elevated risk shown by this group was
explained by social and contextual factors that were associated with patterns of
childhood punishment/maltreatment. Nonetheless, even after control for
confounding factors those reporting harsh or abusive childhood experiences were
at increased risks of violent offending, suicide attempts, being a victim of
violence, and alcohol abuse.
CONCLUSION: This study leads to three major conclusions: (1)
Those exposed to harsh or abusive treatment during childhood are an at-risk
population for juvenile offending, substance abuse, and mental health problems;
(2) Much of this elevated risk arises from the social context within which harsh
or abusive treatment occurs; (3) Nonetheless, exposure to abuse appears to
increase risks of involvement in violent behavior and alcohol abuse. 14
2001: Corporal punishment and social/emotional development:
On AUG-24, Diana Baumrind and Elizabeth Owens, research psychologists at
University of California - Berkley's Institute of Human Development,
reported the results of their longitudinal study on corporal punishment. They
had studied over 100 middle class, white families. Data was extracted from a
data base that had studied the children from 1968, when the children were
preschoolers, to 1980, when the children were early adolescents. They defined
five levels of severity of corporal punishment:
Abusive punishment - There were none among the parents examined.
"Red zone" - About 4 to 7% of parents studied impulsively used
overly severe, frequent hitting. This included using a paddle or other
device to strike the child, hit the child on the face or torso, or "lifted
to throw or shake the child." However, punishment by these
parents did not reach the level of abuse, in the judgment of the
researchers.
"Orange zone" - Parents who spanked frequently but with low
intensity.
"Yellow zone" - Parents who spanked moderately.
"Green zone" - Parents who spanked rarely or not at all.
No parents who went beyond hitting into actual abuse were included in the
study. They found a major correlation between spanking and long-term harm to
children among "Red zone" parents. Among the remaining parents, they found small
but significant correlations between the level of physical punishment and later
misbehavior among the children at age 8 to 9. Ms. Baumrind said that "the
children of parents in the green zone who never spanked were not better adjusted
than those, also in the green zone, who were spanked very seldomly." She emphasized that her study
did not study how abusive physical punishment harms children. She said that she and other researchers have
found ample evidence of that in other studies. 4
2002: Result of meta-analysis of 88 studies:
The American Psychological Association issued apress release
in 2002-JUN concerning the publishing of a large-scale, meta-analysis of 88
studies on spanking of children by psychologist Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff of
the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University.
She searched for associations between parental use of corporal punishment and
eleven factors, including:
In childhood: immediate compliance, moral internalization, quality of
relationship with parent, and physical abuse by that parent, child
aggression;
In adulthood: abuse of ones own children, abuse of one's spouse; and
In both childhood and adulthood: mental health, aggression, and criminal
or antisocial behavior.
She found "strong associations" in each case. One factor -- immediate
compliance by the child -- was positive; the other ten factors were negative.
She suggests that these observations give insight into why corporal punishment
is such a controversial matter:
Many parents strongly support spanking because they are rewarded with
immediate compliance by the child whenever this discipline technique is
used.
Many researchers strongly oppose spanking because of serious negative
affects on the child during childhood and later in life.
The APA comments:
"The meta-analysis also demonstrates that the frequency and severity of
the corporal punishment matters. The more often or more harshly a child was
hit, the more likely they are to be aggressive or to have mental health
problems."
Commenting on the study, George W. Holden, PhD, of the University of Texas at
Austin, wrote that Gershoff's findings:
"... reflect the growing body of evidence indicating that corporal
punishment does no good and may even cause harm."
9.10
Sponsored link:
2002: Genetic linking of childhood abuse with violence in adulthood:
Terri Moffitt of King's College London in the UK, and the
University of Wisconsin in the U.S. helped lead an international team of
investigators in a longitudinal study of 1,037 children. Their subjects were all
born in Dunedin, New Zealand during 1972. Included were 442 boys. The study
followed the children from the age four in 1976 until adulthood. The team
studied the genetic makeup of the children, concentrating on a gene that
controls the production of an enzyme called monoamine oxidase A (MAOA). This
chemical breaks down a key neurotransmitter in the brain which is linked to a
person's mood, aggression and pleasure. The gene come in two
alleles (varieties). One allele is
found in about one third of the male subjects tested. It causes their brains to
produce too little of the enzyme. For these males, 85% of the boys who
were abused during childhood turned to criminal or antisocial behavior as adults.
They were nine times more likely to become antisocial. Moffit explained that the
allele's "relation to aggression only emerged when we considered whether the
children had been maltreated." They defined maltreatment as: frequent
changes in the primary caregiver, rejection by the mother, or physical or sexual
abuse. She said: "This suggests that the best strategy for preventing
violence is to prevent child abuse." Two out of every three boys have
inherited the other allele which produces higher levels of MAOA. They were
unlikely to develop behavior problems. The allele that they possess "may
promote trauma resistance."
If physical abuse during childhood almost inevitably produces anti-social
violent behavior among the one third of adult males who are genetically
predisposed to produce low levels of MAOA, then one wonders what level of
corporal punishment is safe. Perhaps conventional levels of spanking could
trigger violence many years later when the child has grown up.
2004: Linking childhood punishment with political beliefs in adulthood:
The 2004-MAY-13 issue of Newsweek carried an article by Michael Milburn,
interviewed by Brian Braiker. Milburn is a psychologist at the University
of Massachusetts and a co-author of the book: "The Politics of Denial."
5 He "has extensively
explored what determines political attitudes, the role of emotion in public
opinion and the effects of the mass media on political attitudes and social
behavior." Discussing the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq involving the
physical and sexual mistreatment of inmates by American soldiers, he
commented:
"We found that, particularly for males who had never had any
psychotherapy, when they reported a high level of childhood punishment,
they were significantly more likely to endorse a range of punitive
public policies like support for the death penalty,
opposition to
abortion, support for the use of military force....Well, the extent to
which emotion connected to childhood punishment was driving their
political attitudes, when they had an opportunity to sort of reflect on
that and [have a] short-term catharsis experience, that sort of energy
disappears....What we have found, really broadly, is the higher level of punitiveness among political conservatives is really strongly associated
with experiences, generally, of harsh punishment from childhood. It�s
not just going to be that they were spanked; there�s a whole family
climate, and punishment is just going to be one of those indicators of
that....In our research we also found that when we gave people the
statement 'the amount of physical and sexual abuse in this country is
greatly exaggerated by the mass media,' conservatives were significantly
more likely to agree with that."
2004: University of Michigan study of spanking and anti-social behavior
of children:
Andrew Grogan-Kaylor of the University of Michigan's School of Social
Work conducted a study to determine whether spanking children led to their
anti-social behavior later in life. He accessed data from the years 1994,
1996 and 1998 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The results of
the study have been published in the 2004-SEP issue of Social Work
Research. 6
Information for more than 1,800 children were analyzed. Mothers were asked
about incidences of cheating, lying, bullying, breaking things deliberately
or getting into trouble at school. They were also asked how often, if ever,
they had spanked their child in the previous week. Grogan-Kaylor said that:
"Even minimal amounts of spanking can lead to an increased likelihood in
antisocial behavior by children....This study provides further
methodologically rigorous support for the idea that corporal punishment is
not an effective or appropriate disciplinary strategy." 7
The Social Work Research journal's abstract
reads:
"This study was conducted to examine the effect of corporal
punishment on antisocial behavior of children using stronger statistical
controls than earlier literature in this area; to examine whether the effect
of corporal punishment on antisocial behavior is nonlinear; and to
investigate whether the effects of corporal punishment on antisocial
behavior differ across racial and ethnic groups. The author used a
nonexperimental design and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of
Youth. The analysis was conducted using fixed-effects methods to control for
observed independent variables and unobserved time-invariant variables.
Corporal punishment had a nontrivial effect on children's antisocial
behavior in later years despite the strong controls introduced by the
fixed-effects models. The analysis provides no evidence for differences in
the effect of corporal punishment across racial and ethnic groups."
You can view the entire article in your browser for $35.00 US. 8
A study,
based on a national survey on mental health, found that physical punishment
in childhood is associated with an increased rate of major depression and
alcohol abuse or dependence later in life. Physical punishment was defined in
the study as minor assault such as being slapped, spanked, pushed,
or shoved.
The study also found that physical abuse, defined as including being kicked, hit with an
object, beaten up or choked, was also associated with these and other
psychiatric disorders. 11
The PubMed abstract states:
"Physical punishment, as a means of disciplining children, may
be considered a mild form of childhood adversity. Although many outcomes of
physical punishment have been investigated, little attention has been given to
the impact of physical punishment on later adult psychopathology. Also, it has
been stated that physical punishment by a loving parent is not associated with
negative outcomes; however, this theory has not been empirically tested with
regard to psychiatric disorders. The main objective of the present study was to
investigate three categories of increasing severity of childhood adversity (no
physical punishment or abuse, physical punishment only, and child abuse) to
examine whether the childhood experience of physical punishment alone was
associated with adult psychopathology, after adjusting for sociodemographic
variables and parental bonding dimensions.
METHODS: Data were drawn from
the nationally representative National Comorbidity Survey (NCS, n=5,877; age
15-54 years; response rate 82.4%). Binary logistic and multinomial logistic
regression models were used to determine the odds of experiencing psychiatric
disorders.
RESULTS: Physical punishment was associated with increased
odds of major depression (AOR=1.22; 95% CI=1.01-1.48), alcohol abuse/dependence
(AOR=1.32; 95% CI=1.08-1.61), and externalizing problems (AOR=1.30; 95%
CI=1.05-1.60) in adulthood after adjusting for sociodemographic variables and
parental bonding dimensions. Individuals experiencing physical punishment only
were at increased odds of adult psychopathology compared to those experiencing
no physical punishment/abuse and at decreased odds when compared to those who
were abused.
CONCLUSIONS: Physical punishment is a mild form of
childhood adversity that shows an association with adult psychopathology. 12
References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
bbbAdah Maurer, Ph.D. & James S. Wallerstein, "The Influence of Corporal
Punishment on Crime," (1987), The Natural Child Project, at:
http://www.naturalchild.org/
E. Larzelere, "A review of the outcomes of parental use of
nonabusive or customary physical punishment," Pediatrics
98:824-831
Patricia McBroom, "UC Berkeley study finds no lasting harm
among adolescents from moderate spanking earlier in childhood,"
at:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/
Andrew Grogan-Kaylor, "The effect of corporal punishment on
antisocial behavior in children,"
Social Work Research, Vol. 28, # 3, 2004-SEP, Pages 153-162.
"U-M study: Spanking can lead to more bad behavior by
children," University of Michigan News Service, 2004-SEP-08, at:
http://www.umich.edu/
"Is corporal punishment an effective means of discipline?," Press release,
American Psychological Association, 2002-JUN-26, at:
http://www.apa.org/
Elizabeth Gershoff, "Corporal Punishment by Parents and Associated Child
Behaviors and Experiences: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review,"
Psychological Bulletin, Vol 128, #4, Pages 539-579, (2002-JUL), at:
http://www.apa.org/
Tracie O Afifi, et al., "Physical punishment, childhood abuse
and psychiatric disorders," Child Abuse and Neglect, 2006,
Volume 30, Pages 1093-1103
D.M. Fergusson & M.T. Lynskey, "Physical punishment/maltreatment during
childhood and adjustment in young adulthood," Child Abuse and Neglect, 1997
Jul;21(7): Pages 617-30.
