Researchers Analyze 50 Years of Spanking Studies

[TheNorwegian]

I was spanked a few times when I was a kid when I truly did something wrong. You know what? It taught me to fear doing something wrong, funny that.
.

You know what? Many of us learned to avoid doing something wrong without being spanked, funny that

 

[The Cadet]

Studies say it's good for the child and others say it's harmful. What this shows that the "experts" don't know what their talking about.

Medical science issues, particularly in the field of psychology, are extremely complex and multifaceted. It's easy for a single study, particularly with a small sample size, to come up with an anomalous result. That's how we end up with a handful of studies that actually show some effects for homeopathy: not because Homeopathy works, but because with the hundreds of studies done, you'd expect one of them to come up with a false positive. This is where major metareviews like the one linked in the OP come in handy - it examines all available studies, and allows for a far higher sample size, to figure out what results are typical and which results actually are anomalous, due to weak sample size, or study design, or the like.

 

[Catherineanne]

http://www.newser.com/story/224147/study-spanking-is-nearly-as-damaging-as-child-abuse.html

Spanking IS child abuse.

 

[Catherineanne]

Yeah, but if the child doesn't grok that, then later on if he/she does it again, its perfectly appropriate to smack their hand.

It is never appropriate behaviour to hit an adult, and therefore it is never appropriate behaviour to hit a child.

Keep children out of the kitchen if there are hot pans around.

 

[Catherineanne]

I understand your logic to be: "People who disagrees with me do so because they have not been properly spanked"
Is this how you see it?

I was hit as a child. I still disagree with hitting children; to me it is common assault, whoever does it. All a child learns from it is that the strongest wins the argument, and that hitting younger and weaker people is fine. It is not fine, not ever.

 

[Catherineanne]

Studies say it's good for the child and others say it's harmful. What this shows that the "experts" don't know what their talking about. Here is what a couple of studies said:

"When parents are loving and firm and communicate well with the child,'' Dr. Baumrind said, ''the children are exceptionally competent and well adjusted, whether or not their parents spanked them as preschoolers.''

The study drew upon data from the Family Socialization and Developmental Competence Project, which followed families in the Berkeley, Calif., area over 12 years, from the time their children were preschoolers until they were adolescents.

Dr. Baumrind argued that, without compelling evidence that spanking is harmful, parents should be free to rear their children in accordance with their own values and traditions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/25/u...-to-advocates-of-spanking.html?pagewanted=all

Young children spanked by their parents may grow up to be happier and more successful than those who have never been hit, a study has found.

According to the research, children spanked up to the age of 6 were likely as teenagers to perform better at school and were more likely to carry out volunteer work and to want to go to college than their peers who had never been physically disciplined.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2010/0...ay-grow-up-to-be-happier-more-successful.html

Child abusers everywhere can hide behind nonsense like this, because it creates a grey area of acceptable behaviour that they can pretend to inhabit, while beating the living daylights out of their children. Don't think that it doesn't happen; it happens in every neighbourhood. And hiding behind the Bible is even worse; pretending that God sanctions the assault of little children is beyond appalling.

No grey areas; imo common assault on children is an evil which no civilised person should countenance for a single moment. A parent - any adult - who hits a child has lost the argument, and retreated into the behaviour of a bully and a coward.

The question to ask is this; if a complete stranger did this to me would I call the police and file charges for assault? If the answer is yes, then don't do it to a child. Brutality is never the answer.

 

[Catherineanne]

What about the other research that says its not harmful at all. Some studies say it's bad and others back up that it's good for kids. What it comes down to is what are you as a parent comfortable with in child rearing. Not only does some say it's good for child development, but also from experience as both from my own childhood and as a parent knows it works and when done right it, it can bring out alot of positive in children.

They are wrong. Simple as that.

Child abuse is never acceptable.

 

[Catherineanne]

And how many government agencies do you want created or involved in policing American parents to make sure no child is smacked behind?

The point is not to criminalise parents who happen to smack a child once, and who regret it.

The point is to not leave a grey area for parents who routinely beat their children, and to send a very clear and unequivocal message that assault is always wrong. Leaving it to a parent who is in a temper to decide when enough is enough is simply not right.

 

[Catherineanne]

Yeah, CPS.

A couple of years ago I went into our local YMCA to teach my son how to swim. Outside the doors they had stuck little heart shaped flags in the ground, each one representing a "reported case of child abuse." I asked the people working behind the counter if any of them knew how many of those flags represented actual cases of child abuse as opposed to someone only making a claim. They, of course, had no idea. And became near violently angry I would even dare ask.

Far too often CPS sticks their nose where they have no business based on some zealot making a phone call. It is the non-police equivalent to swatting.

Other way round. For every case of child abuse investigated there are tens if not hundreds which never make it to CPS.

Those reported cases? Multiply them by ten, and you still get an underestimate.

 

[Catherineanne]

I remember a Psychology professor I had mentioning something about hitting/spanking children. It does not work and when kids see violence as young children they can grow up to also do the same to their kids.

Spanking has no good outcome for the child or the next generation. However this is not always the case. There are people from my parents generation that got spanked and did not do that to their kids.

Some of us realised how much it made us despise our parents.

 

[Xalith]

@Catherineanne : There's something called moderation. With my parents, they only did it for the very worst of offenses. I never grew up to hate my parents, in fact, I love them. I still live with them to this day (I'm 36) because they are aging and they could use the extra help that I provide.

Now, there is an extreme, there is a point where you go too far and I don't approve of that. Beating your kid over every little thing is wrong, but yet the occasional paddling for something truly bad once in awhile won't hurt the kid.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

So if the "experts" know better which experts do not? Since both group of experts disagree with one another, who is right? Is the group of experts that go along with your views the right one? If so why. Is this study correct:

Young children spanked by their parents may grow up to be happier and more successful than those who have never been hit, a study has found.

According to the research, children spanked up to the age of 6 were likely as teenagers to perform better at school and were more likely to carry out volunteer work and to want to go to college than their peers who had never been physically disciplined.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2010/0...ay-grow-up-to-be-happier-more-successful.html

The study referred to in the OP seems to be a meta-analysis, meaning that it integrates the results of multiple studies.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

What about the other research that says its not harmful at all. Some studies say it's bad and others back up that it's good for kids. What it comes down to is what are you as a parent comfortable with in child rearing. Not only does some say it's good for child development, but also from experience as both from my own childhood and as a parent knows it works and when done right it, it can bring out alot of positive in children.

As far as I'm aware, those studies you are referring to were also included in the meta-analysis. But in the end the overall results found "a link between spanking and increased risk for detrimental child outcomes."

 

[Cearbhall]

What about the other research that says its not harmful at all.

Again, I think you're misinterpreting the study. The point is that it doesn't have any benefits, even in those studies. Some kids turn out fine in spite of being spanked, due to the other actions of their parents, such as an accompanying lecture or emotional support.

Why would you hit your kid if it doesn't make a positive difference? I find it strange that some people seem to operate from the standpoint of "Tell me why I shouldn't use conditioning of pain responses on my small human children."

 

[Sistrin]

Other way round. For every case of child abuse investigated there are tens if not hundreds which never make it to CPS.

Those reported cases? Multiply them by ten, and you still get an underestimate.

I seriously doubt that. We live in an age where a report itself is considered all the proof required for a group such as CPS to go all gestapo on families.

The point is to not leave a grey area for parents who routinely beat their children, and to send a very clear and unequivocal message that assault is always wrong. Leaving it to a parent who is in a temper to decide when enough is enough is simply not right.

The problem is this is all subjective. Who gets to define the terms "routinely," "beat," and that grey area? From reading your comments if left to you it would include any parent who ever smacked their child's hand or rear end once. Then to criminalize them unless they responded in the state approved fashion of voicing regret. Leaving it to parents defines the role of parents. Leaving it to the state defines the totalitarian nature of progressive thought.

 

[Papias]

The problem is this is all subjective. Who gets to define the terms "routinely," "beat," and that grey area? From reading your comments if left to you it would include any parent who ever smacked their child's hand or rear end once. Then to criminalize them unless they responded in the state approved fashion of voicing regret. Leaving it to parents defines the role of parents. Leaving it to the state defines the totalitarian nature of progressive thought.

These are all the typical responses of someone who doesn't want to protect children. You can see this by looking at the similar situation that was resolved 30 years ago - that of hitting one's wife. Going back more than 40 or 50 years, it was de facto (and often explicitly) legal to hit one's wife. Heck, outright rape was legal, based on the idea that the husband owns the sex, so accusing a husband of raping his wife was seen the same as accusing someone of stealing their own money.

This realization makes Sistrin's paragraph rather chilling:

The problem is this is all subjective. Who gets to define the terms "routinely," "beat," and that grey area? From reading your comments if left to you it would include any husband who ever smacked their wife's hand or leg once. Then to criminalize them unless they responded in the state approved fashion of voicing regret. Leaving it to husbands defines the role of husbands. Leaving it to the state defines the totalitarian nature of progressive thought.​

In another 20 years, no will believe that people could have been like Sistrin, just as we are appalled by the paragraph above.

Also - yes, the Bibles very clearly instruct us to hit our kids (we can get into all the verses if anyone doubts this). The idea that this an important part of being a "good" parent - even a godly parent, is repeated in both the old and new testaments. It's another example of something that simply doesn't fit in our modern world, and should no longer be taken literally.

That's why spanking has been standard Christian parenting for 2,000 years. It's only in last few decades that this has become "controversial". When it started to even be suggested that there was anything wrong with hitting kids, the Christian press churned out books in defense of it, such as this one:

There are tons more that are easy to find, including the ongoing urgings of Christian leaders like Dr. James Dobson.

In Christ-

Papias

 

[Sistrin]

These are all the typical responses of someone who doesn't want to protect children.

And yours is the pitiable response of someone who must resort to defamation of character in an attempt to bolster a fallacious claim. What amazing and deplorable hubris you evidence, to come here and suggest I do not care about protecting children. You have crossed a serious boundary, and the fact you may not be aware of why is no excuse. But I will trust one of my Admiralty brothers to point out to you, perhaps best via private message, how.

I care to protect children from a whole host of societal ills, many of which can be directly traced to the promotion of progressive ideals. Lack of discipline is not a virtue. It is a destructive force. Tell me, do you believe any of the children involved in this event were ever truly disciplined either at home or in school?

3 Students Suspended After Teen Girl Beaten to Death in Delaware High School Bathroom

"Delaware school officials say three students have been indefinitely suspended following the death of 16-year-old girl in a bathroom fight last Thursday."

"The three students from Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington, Delaware, were questioned by police after the fight and “have not been back in school since the incident,” New Castle School District spokeswoman Kathy Demarest told CNN."

“There was an altercation that initially started between two people, and my understanding is that additional individuals joined in against the one person,” said Gary Fullman, chief of staff to the Wilmington mayor.

The student was badly injured and transported by helicopter to A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children, where she died, Fullman said."

Video from FOX News.

Perhaps the children involved in this incident could have benefited from a few instructional interludes concerning discipline:

Or perhaps this ten year old girl would still be alive if parents felt secure in disciplining their own children without fear of State repercussion:

Action without consequence is a progressive theorum predestined to fail. I am not suggesting the only disciplinary measure employable in regard to children is spanking, and I agree spanking should be rare. But the absence of discipline breeds anarchy, and you won't prevent that with time outs and prissy speeches about making good choices.

Note in the above video how the school administration characterized the assault, as a "dramatically poor choice." No, it was felonious assault, motivated at some level by a complete absence of fear of repercussion on the part of the student.

You can see this by looking at the similar situation that was resolved 30 years ago - that of hitting one's wife.

Nonsense. Physical assault is physical assault. The standard being imposed by the progressive left is any form of spanking at any level is child abuse, and that is patently ridiculous. The issue here is the attempt to teach children the clear difference between right and wrong and state insistence on mandating and enforcing exactly how that will be done.

Going back more than 40 or 50 years, it was de facto (and often explicitly) legal to hit one's wife. Heck, outright rape was legal, based on the idea that the husband owns the sex, so accusing a husband of raping his wife was seen the same as accusing someone of stealing their own money.

Post your evidence that during the 1960's rape was legal.

This realization makes Sistrin's paragraph rather chilling:

The canard you are promoting is a textbook example of attacking a straw man. In addition I believe it is a violation of forum rules to deliberately alter a members comments for any reason, let alone in an attempt to impugn their character.

In another 20 years, no will believe that people could have been like Sistrin...

In another twenty years we will be living in an Idiocracy.

...just as we are appalled by the paragraph above.

A paragraph which you fabricated.

 

[Smidlee]

Spanking of itself is not a magical answer to raise up your child. My dad tore my tail up but not out of argue. It was my mother who told dad I need a whipping especially when I mistreated my younger sister. In was the fact that my mother warned me and when I didn't listen that she tell me she would have dad to whip me when he got home that really got me to think. I beg my mom not to tell dad but she always kept her word. So it's wasn't just the spanking it was my mother's tough love that made a huge impact on me.
Spanking just out of argue or spanking a child after you lost control is not helpful to a child.
I did the same with my son. My wife and I warn him before hand if he did something he would get a spanking and I always kept my word. Now that he is grown he told me he respected me for that. He told me most at his school knew how to make their parent back down but he knew I wouldn't.

This is why I don't have much faith in these studies as it's the reasoning behind the spanking that make the difference.

 

[Tallguy88]

Blind post!

You raise your kids the way you want, and allow other parents the same privledge. The spankers shouldn't moralize to the non spankers and vice versa. Each parent should read and learn about the issue and practice dicipline as they feel is best for their child, whether that involves spankings or not.

Everyone else should butt out and mind their own children so long as no illegal activity is occurring. And if you live in the USA, reasonable spanking is legal.

 

[Followers4christ]

Spanking IS child abuse.

That's your opinion, but the government sees it differently as while as lots of other parents. It's not only legal in all 50 states, but it is widely practiced by many loving parents as a form of discipline.