A new analysis of 50 years of research has revealed that the more children are smacked, the more they are likely to defy their parents and experience anti-social behaviour and other problems.
The study has been published in the Journal of Family Psychology and covers five decades of research involving more than 160,000 children, reports EurekAlert!
“Our analysis focuses on what most Americans would recognize as spanking and not on potentially abusive behaviours,” said one of the study’s authors Professor Elizabeth Gershoff.
“We found that spanking was associated with unintended detrimental outcomes and was not associated with more immediate or long-term compliance, which are parents’ intended outcomes when they discipline their children.”
According to the study, smacking is linked with increased aggression, mental health problems and cognitive difficulties in children.
“The upshot of the study is that spanking increases the likelihood of a wide variety of undesired outcomes for children,” said co-author Professor Andrew Grogan-Kaylor.
“Spanking thus does the opposite of what parents usually want it to do,” he said.
Professor Elizabeth Gershoff says that despite no clear evidence for any positive effects of smacking, the practice persists around the world.
“We as a society think of spanking and physical abuse as distinct behaviours,” she said. “Yet our research shows that spanking is linked with the same negative child outcomes as abuse, just to a slightly lesser degree.”
“We hope that our study can help educate parents about the potential harms of spanking and prompt them to try positive and non-punitive forms of discipline.”
What do you think – agree/disagree?
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