Child corporal punishment: Spanking

Results of studies 1985 to 1995

Sponsored link.

Overview:

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. Those undertaken by anti-spanking advocates inevitably show that spanking is counter-productive and perhaps dangerous. Those undertaken by pro-spanking advocates show the opposite: spanking is safe, effective, and has no long term deleterious results.

Needless to say, conservative religious groups and other anti-spanking advocates tend to quote the former type of study, whereas liberal religious groups and other pro-spanking advocates quote the latter.

Study bias is a common phenomenon among behavioral studies in which the researchers have a committed position and are required to judge behavior. However, there are a few studies that largely bypass such judgment. The effects of research bias are minimal or non-existent. Three such studies conducted between 1985 and 1995 were:

• The National Family Violence Survey that involved statistical analysis of answers given by adults.
• Family Research Laboratory of the University of New Hampshire that involved parental self-reporting on spanking and IQ test.
• Statistical analysis of data from an existing population health survey by the Ontario Ministry of Health.

1985: Study of teenage corporal punishment and adult depression:

M.A. Straus of the Family Research Laboratory of the University of New Hampshire analyzed data from a 1985 National Family Violence Survey. He reported this in his book "Beating the devil out of them: Corporal punishment in American families and its effects on children." ₁ He observed:

• Serious adult depression is a widespread problem. It affects from 1 to 6% of the population.
• There is little empirical research on the link between childhood corporal punishment and depression. One study "suggests that the perceptual blinders are a result of the almost universal early experience with corporal punishment."
• An analysis of ten of the leading child psychology textbooks showed that they devoted only an average of only half a page to corporal punishment.
• He quotes a book by P. Greven which suggests that

"depression often is a delayed response to the suppression of childhood anger...from being physically hit and hurt..." [by parents]...Melancholy and depression have been persistent themes in the family history, religious experience, and emotional lives of Puritans, evangelicals, fundamentalists and Pentecostals for centuries....The first assaults on children's bodies and spirits generally commences before conscious memory can recall them later. The unconscious thus becomes the repository of rage, resistance, and desire for revenge that small children feel when being struck by the adults they love...the ancient angers persist while the adult conscience directs rage inward upon the self." ₂

• The National Family Violence Survey involved 6,002 adults respondents, including adults who were living with a spouse, living common law, or a single parent living with one or more children. They were asked the question: "Thinking about when you yourself were a teenager, about how often would you say your mother or stepmother used corporal punishment, like slapping or hitting you?" A second question was asked concerning their father or stepfather. About half of the subjects reported memories of having been hit during adolescence. Respondents were asked five questions to find out if they had been suffering from sadness, depression, feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, feelings that nothing was worthwhile, or suicidal ideation during the past year.
• "For the men [in the study], there is a clear tendency for depressive symptoms to increase with each increment of corporal punishment. For the women in this sample, the slope starts out even more steeply than for the men, but then declines for the highest categories of corporal punishment....the significant effect of corporal punishment occurs despite controlling for possible confounding with the five other variables -- SES, gender of the child, husband to wife violence, excessive drinking and witnessing violence between parents."
• The data showed that "with increasing amounts of corporal punishment [during teen years], ...thinking about suicide [in adulthood] increased. "

1986 to 1990: Study of corporal punishment and child anti-social behavior:

1986 to 1990: Corporal punishment and child IQ:

The Family Research Laboratory of the University of New Hampshire released a study which showed that the more often a child is spanked, the lower they score in IQ tests four years later. Their paper was described by researcher Dr. Murray Straus at the World Congress of Sociology on 1998-AUG-1 in Montreal, Quebec. They examined 960 American children who were between one and four years old between 1986 and 1990. The researchers do not attribute the lower IQ tests directly to physical injuries sustained during the spanking. Rather, they believe that parents who do not spank are forced to use more reasoning and explaining while disciplining the child. "Some parents think this is a waste of time, but research shows that such verbal parent-child interactions enhance the child's cognitive ability." Thirteen percent of the parents studied reported spanking their children seven or more times a week. The average was 3.6 spankings per week. Twenty-seven percent reported using no physical punishment. Those children who were spanked frequently averaged 98 on their IQ tests. Those who were rarely or never spanked scored 102 -- an above-average score. The four point average decline in IQ among the spanked students is sufficient to have a negative functional effect on those children. Ms. Dawn Walker, executive director of the Canadian Institute of Child Health commented:

"We know that children who are under the threat of violence or aggression develop a fight-or-flight response system that has an impact on creativity and imagination, both of which could influence their IQ...Children need discipline but not hitting." ₃

1987: Mauer-Wallerstein study:

Adah Maurer, Ph.D. & James S. Wallerstein, compiled the following composite report from a variety of sources: ₄

Degree of physical punishment during childhood

Cathy Woodgold, webmaster of "Cathy's Parenting Pages" commented:

"The implications of these results are clear. The more someone is successful in life (not being a juvenile delinquent, not dropping out of school etc.) the less likely they were to have been physically punished as a child or the less severe the physical punishment. To put it the other way around: the more physical punishment, the more likely the person later became a criminal, high-school dropout etc." ₅

Taking part in this survey were:

• Professionals were composed of 200 psychologists who filled out anonymous questionnaires,
• 372 college students were sampled at the University of California, Davis and California State University at Fresno,
• 52 slow track underachievers were from Richmond High School; city and state unknown.
• Delinquents were interviewed by Dr. Ralph Welsh in Bridgeport, CT and by Dr. Alan Button in Fresno, CA.
• Prisoner information was by courtesy of Hobart Banks, M.S.W., counselor of difficult prisoners at San Quentin Penitentiary, San Quentin, California. ₄

1995: Corporal punishment and adult addiction and psychiatric problems:

* More than one disorder included illicit drug abuse, addictions & antisocial behavior.

Their results were published in the Canadian Medical Journal for 1995-OCT. ₇ They reported that

"there appears to be a linear association between the frequency of slapping and spanking during childhood and a lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorder, alcohol abuse or dependence and externalizing problems."

Jim Sclater of Focus on the Family (Canada) Association -- a Fundamentalist Christian advocacy group -- commented:

"We're always very suspicious of studies that come from the other side that predictably are looking for anything that could be construed as saying spanking leads to abuse."

More recent studies (1996 to 2006)...

References:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. M.A. Straus, Corporal punishment of children and adult depression and suicidal ideation," Chapter 5 of: "Beating the devil out of them: Corporal punishment in American families and its effects on children," New Brunswick, (2000), Page 60 to 77. Online at: http://pubpages.unh.edu/ This is a PDF file. You may require software to read it. Software can be obtained free from:  Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
2. P. Greven, "Spare the child: The religious roots of physical punishment and the psychological impact of physical abuse," Knopf, (1991)
3. Jane Gadd, "Spanked children suffer intellectually," The Globe and Mail, Toronto ON, 1998-JUL-30
4. Adah Maurer, Ph.D. & James S. Wallerstein, "The Influence of Corporal Punishment on Crime," (1987), The Natural Child Project, at: http://www.naturalchild.org/
5. Cathy Woodgold, untitled note, Cathy's Parenting Pages, at: http://web.ncf.ca/
6. Harriet McMillan, et al., "Slapping and spanking in childhood and its association with lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorders in a general population sample,"  Canadian Medical Association Journal, 1999-OCT-5, at: http://www.cma.ca/
7. "Punished for life: Canadian study links spanking to addiction and psychiatric disorders," Reuters, 1999-OCT-5. Online at: http://nospank.net/adctn.htm

Copyright © 1995 to 2008 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2008-JUL-23
Author: B.A. Robinson

Web ReligiousTolerance.org