The hot button debate about whether or not spanking is a viable, productive way to discipline children has gotten more fuel for its ongoing fire because, you know, proponents for each side just didn’t have quite enough material to quibble over up until now. The latest in the long lineup of postulations is new research from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, which claims disciplining kids with physical punishment such as spanking—and, of course, its handmaidens, shoving and slapping—may raise their risk for developing mental health problems when they get older.
From the gate, there’s a problem with the assertion. The research is clearly skewed as a bully pulpit against corporal punishment because shoving and slapping are so not in the same category of discipline as a swat across a kid’s behind in a moment of correction or a spanking out of love as part of a parent’s plan to set an unruly child straight.
As a matter of fact, the study’s author, Dr. Tracie O. Afifi, lumps spanking in with not only shoving and slapping, but hitting, grabbing, and pushing, in essence making those actions out to be one in the same. WebMD takes it one step further by adding in denying bathroom privileges, forcing a child to eat disgusting substances, or withholding water and food.
More from The Stir: My Parents Spanked Me & It Still Hurts Me Now
Seriously? I know opponents are eager to prove their point that all physical discipline is the handiwork of a less loving parent, but there is a line between punishment and just flat out abuse. Let’s review: if you wail on your kid without any kind of emotional or psychological bolstering, if you pull out the belt or snap off a switch at the least little misstep, if your kneejerk reaction is to raise a hand or foot to mollywhop a child into better behavior, then you might just be an abuser. But that’s not the case for moms and dads who correct with an occasional spanking and follow that up with loving conversation that reinforces the values and expectations behind the punishment in the first place.
American parents are pretty much split down the middle between the spankers and the non-spankers. Forty-eight percent of U.S. moms and dads use corporal strategy when time-outs and talking-tos just won’t get the point across. But according to Afifi’s research, physical punishment increases a person's odds for having a mood or anxiety issues, alcohol or drug abuse, and personality disorders. According to the study, between 2 and 7 percent of mental health problems among the 35,000 subjects involved can be attributed to physical punishment.
At the end of the day, you can find research to support just about any theory, thought, idea, or belief if you dig long and hard enough. I think this is just another attempt to pare parenting down to one blanketed method instead of letting folks find out what works for their families with free conscience. And since kids don’t come with an instruction manual, I think our time would be better served stepping out of the gray area of corporal punishment and trying to figure out how to help in some of the 1,001 other areas that are less objective, more cut and dry, and much more in-our-faces.
So, do you think kids who get spanked are more susceptible to having mental issues as adults?
Image via goodnight_photography/Flickr
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Comments 121
To each their own, I personally cannot fathom hurting my child to get a positive result. It does not make sense to me. I do not understand being calm while inflicting pain on your child. I do not understand the phrase "don't spank when angry". Well if your not mad, why would you lash out? This is not something I will do. To each their own in doing what works for their family. For me personally, I have not seen anything good come of inflicting pain on a child.
JMO
I appreciate this post. I read the article you mentioned and I was seeing red afterwards. There is an agenda to completely abolish spanking in this country, I believe. What's sad is they lump it together with abusive behavior such as hitting, slapping, and such. What differentiates spanking from physical abuse is NOT doing it out of anger or frustration, and only swatting a child on the behind, where they have plenty of cushion. It is a controlled act that if done right does not make a child more angry or predisposed to violence or to mental illness. That's a crock. I grew up spanked and while I will be quick to say I'm not perfect (no one is), I learned to respect authority. Kids today have absolutely no respect because in many cases they have no boundaries and are basically taught that it's okay to always question authority, or refuse to do what they're told if they don't like it. There is definitely a fine line and it's easy in a fit of anger for corporal punishment to escalate into abuse if the parent is not in control of their emotions, but heaven help us if the day comes when it will be against the law to spank, even in the right way.
Hmmm, by this study's assertions, because I suffered from depression and PTSD a couple years ago, it was because my dad spanked me when I was six.
Nevermind the little detail that I was having personal issues at the time, I was a new mom whose husband was living hours away for work, or that, a couple years later, that same husband suffered a life-altering car wreck. The depression and PTSD MUST have been because Dad spanked me.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Of course, my friend, who also suffered depression and PTSD, suffered those "authentically" because *her* parents didn't spank her. What. The. Hell???
I agree with everything the article said.
I personally have a three time rule. I tell you once to lay down ground rules. I tell you twice you get a time out.. or a toy taken away. i tell you a thrid time.. there is no talking about it... you will get a spanking.. I was spanked as a child.. and i was also HIT as a kid.. and i knew the diffrence then.. and i know the diffrence now..because there is a huge diffrence between the two..it also depends on the child. some children dont need spankings.. others need them.. others wouldnt be so hard to handle...if they had the right kind of fear and respect for the parents that you are supposed to have growing up. Its also good to have rules for yourself when using spanking. Such as.. Never hit with an object. Open hand only. Never on the hand always on the butt..no more then three swats..If after spanking..and the behaviour doesnt stop..that doesnt rule for more spanking..obviously something else needs to be done.. There are ways to do this where it can be a positive form of disipline.
JW81641- "There is an agenda to completely abolish spanking in this country" Unless after every time a child is born they send an agent of the state to come out and sit ontop of those parents and watch their EVERY move with the child.. No..it will never happen.. people are free to do as they wish with themselves and their children behind closed dooors.. period.