Should parent be allowed to smack their own child - Essay Example

Should Parents be Allowed to Smack Their Own Children? Smacking children as a method to correct bad behaviour has been widely used by parents, especially those in the U.K. and U.S. but lately this disciplinary technique has been the subject of criticism. Corporal punishment seems a simple and effective way to punish children when they stray from desired actions. Children seem to respond much quicker to physical punishments or even the threat of this than they do verbal corrections. Many parents believe that smacking is an acceptable form of punishment and consider the practice as an indispensable component of child-rearing. Others believe hitting anyone is wrong including and maybe especially, a person’s own child. Physically abusing another is a crime and when it involves a child, reprehensible as well. A civilized society should not permit a child to be abused simply because of some perceived biological right that somehow supercedes all others. Is smacking a positive, healthy and effective way to discipline a child or does this practice teach the child that violence is an accepted way to vent anger? This discussion will examine the argument from studies which advocate smacking contained in a literature review by Robert E. Larzelere PhD. and from Helena Bargholtz of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly which denounces the practice. The Council has been instrumental in the banning of corporal punishment in all but five EC countries including the U.K. According to Larzelere’s findings, whether children experience negative or positive outcomes due to their upbringing depends on the rate of recurrence of any disciplinary approach. This includes all types and does not single-out corporal punishment. Consequently, it is excessive recurrences of bad behaviour that is the root-cause of negative outcomes. Parents understand that recurring bad behaviour will hamper their child’s chances for a successful life as an adult and feel compelled to diminish poor behavioural patterns with disciplinary techniques they believe to be most effective. What parents need is quality information regarding methods by which to effectively discipline their children. Effective punishment techniques are established on the basis of a relationship between the parent and child that is positive and loving. The punishment methods are proactive but measured and administered with competency. When acting in response to bad behaviour, parents should apply mild corrective actions such as reasoning, grounding and time-out. Smacking is most effective when used to re-enforce these mild corrective actions. Studies have demonstrated that smacking is not merely effective on its own merits alone but it serves to increase the chance that the child will respond to the mild corrective tactics. As a consequence, smacking is needed less to control behaviour as the child grows older. “Spanking has consistently beneficial outcomes when it is non-abusive (e.g., two swats to the buttocks with an open hand) and used primarily to back up milder disciplinary tactics with 2- to 6-year-olds by loving parents. . .most detrimental outcomes in causally relevant studies are due to overly frequent use of physical punishment” (Larzelere, 2000: 215). Larzelere’s review underscored outcomes from 11 studies that were conducted which all took early childhood bad behaviour into consideration. This methodology provided credible evidence pertaining to the causal effects of corporal punishment. In general, these studies discovered that smacking produced a benefit rather than a detriment under certain circumstances. These include, when excessive or severe physical punishment was not present; when smacking was utilised only after milder corrective tactics were tried; when smacking was used only on the children under the age of seven years; when used on exceptionally disobedient children and when the smacking was viewed by the children’s and their cultural group as normal discipline, for example, conservative Christian households. The ‘smacking culture’ includes the majority of U.K. households as evidenced by the fact that a majority of parents not only believe corporal punishment is the correct method for the home, they want it to be reintroduced in schools to tackle what they perceive is an increasing problem of classroom disorder. According to a poll published by the Guardian in 2000, two-thirds of parents think discipline has declined over the past 10 years, while only one in 10 believe it has improved. “Fifty-one per cent of parents think reintroduction of corporal punishment is the answer to the problem. Among working class parents, 60 per cent are in favour, 40 per cent among middle class parents” (Carvel, 2000). A U.K. organisation, Families for Discipline, is a pro-smacking lobbying group that is taking their appeal to European courts attempting to defend parent’s right to delegate the authority to physically punish their children to schools (Robinson, 2006). Many parents and researchers alike are of the opinion that “parents have to be the parents, you can’t let the children run circles around you, which they will. Kids want to push their limits” (Etheridge, 1997). In addition, there are safety concerns. If a child is repeating unsafe behaviour such as climbing the oven or darting out into the street, parents have to stop the child by any means necessary. If reasoning with the child is not effective or the child is too young to understand either the rationale or the danger, a quick swat on the backside may ultimately serve to save their life. Whatever the arguments of those opposed to corporal punishment pale by comparison to life and death situations. A large-scale study in the 1990’s discovered that 91 per cent of British children had been smacked by their parents. Twenty-five per cent of infants have been smacked by their mother and 14 per cent of one year-olds had been smacked with a degree of ‘moderate severity.’ The study also found that shockingly, “one fifth of the children had been hit with an implement and over one third had experienced a punishment rated as ‘severe.’ Severe punishment is described as hitting which was “intended to or had the potential to or actually did cause physical and/or psychological injury or harm to the child” (Nobes, 1997). Hitting a person is illegal in the entirety of the European community. Children are the most vulnerable of people yet smacking children remains a common practice in most member states. According to the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, the legal and social acceptance of punishment of children by means of hitting them must not be allowed to continue. The Council encourages all member states to ratify legislation that prohibits corporal punishment, particularly when it pertains to instances within the family unit. The Council of Europe has had success in eradicating the Capital punishment (the death penalty) throughout Europe and “the Assembly calls on its member states to make Europe, as soon as possible, a corporal punishment-free zone for children” (Bargholtz, 2004). To be in compliance with the European Social Charter, according to the European Committee of Social Rights, EU nation states must outlaw all varieties of corporal punishment which includes smacking or other types of child punishment considered degrading. Several world governing bodies have determined that hitting any person violates that person’s fundamental human rights. In addition, this practice displays a careless lack of respect for basic human dignity. Children are people, though smaller and thus more vulnerable, who also share these fundamental human rights along with the adults who are responsible for protecting them. The European Court of Human Rights have passed judgments which have progressively denounced corporal punishment within or outside the family unit. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child mandates that countries protect their children from all types of mental or physical hostility while being cared for by either the parents or other entities such as schools. The Committee of Ministers has appealed for reforms of current law and associated regulations which puts an end to corporal punishment in a succession of proposals since 1985. Regardless of these recognized human rights principles which require widespread legal action, just a few of the Council of Europe’s member nations have unequivocally banned all forms of corporal punishment including that which occurs within a family setting. In addition, most member nations have not even conducted studies involving the results emanating from violent behaviour suffered by children within the family. In the few instances where a country has conducted this type of study, corporal punishments have been found to cause an excessive amount of serious injuries among children. ”Abolishing corporal punishment is a key to improving children’s status and an essential strategy for preventing all other forms of violence and exploitation” (Bargholtz, 2004). Although corporal punishment has been established both legally and socially as an acceptable form of corrective measure when a child is behaving badly, it is now acknowledged as a violation of children’s fundamental human rights. Throughout Europe, the rights of children are methodically being infringed upon on in an enormous scale. The numbers are estimated to be in the millions. Research has suggested that in those countries where corporal punishment has yet to be openly challenged via legal recourse and educational resources which are practically non-existent, corporal punishment in the home remains an extremely frequent phenomenon. Smacking often escalates by instance or over time into an extremely abusive situation and has frequently resulted in physical and psychological damage, various types of disabilities and in some tragic cases, death is the result. Psychological repercussions include violent thoughts followed closely by violent actions not only during childhood but later in life as well. “It is extraordinary that children, whose developmental state makes them particularly vulnerable to physical and psychological injury should have less legal protection from assault in a majority of member states than adults have” (Bargholtz, 2004). Determining to what extent smacking and similar violent acts perpetrated against children by the hand of their parents exists is by conducting exhaustive interviews with children and parents. The results depend on the openness of the interviewees which have generally kept this information strictly to themselves prior to the interview. If the results are to be adjusted for margin of error, they can only be revised upward. It is very possible that the already alarming statistics of child abuse originating from parental smacking could be worse than they now appear. Some studies involve questioning adults regarding their childhood experiences. Though it does provide varying degrees of credible information, this method cannot bring to light the events that occurred during the early childhood years. Additionally, research regarding corporal punishment in the home has only relatively recently become the subject of study as in years past it was widely accepted as a respectable parenting practice and in many European countries, it still is. This state of affairs further stifles the interest to conduct and develop advanced study techniques which, in turn, slows public enlightenment of the problem. Measuring improvement in the intensities and incidents of corporal punishment requires regular, accurate research methods with accurate representative factions of children and parents. A heightened awareness of the problem will lead to further studies which will prove to the public and legislators that smacking should be considered much the same as all other assault crimes in the eyes of society and the justice system. The Council of Europe is continuing to heighten awareness in hopes of eliminating the popular concept that the practice of hitting children is acceptable. Historically speaking, the U.S. has similar views regarding ‘spanking’ as they term it but the tide seems to be turning in that country. American parents do not employ corporal punishment to near the degree they did in the 1950’s, for example. The number of studies are increasing in the U.S. such as research conducted by the University of New Hampshire. According to this study, children that are the product of parents who practiced corporal punishment may suffer negative effects in the long-term. “Based on interviews with the mothers of about 3,000 children, researcher Murray Straus found that corporal punishment is counterproductive, resulting in more antisocial behavior by children in later years” (Etheridge, 1997). Since the effects are long-range, parents may not notice violent behaviour from their children for weeks, months or years later, long after the damage has been done. The continual habit of smacking in order to modify behaviour creates a dislike and mistrust by the child for their parents. This, combined with a growing resentment toward the parents and varied negative psychological factors associated with snacking result in a greater probability the child will display anti-social behaviour as an older child and adult. A study analyzed surveyed statistics taken from more than 800 mothers and compared children of parents that smacked against those whose didn’t over a two year interval. According to the study, the children of homes that practiced corporal punishment exhibited antisocial behavior to a higher degree at the end of the two years than those who were not smacked. The elevated level of bad behavior was unrelated to other characteristics that might cause or exacerbate anti-social behaviour such as the economic status of the family or the quantity of encouragement parents gave their child. Though parental attention somewhat softens the negative affects caused by consistent smacking, it does not reverse it. Some suggest that we go back to the days of systems with a good whacking to correct behaviour. Others insist that this is tantamount to criminal brutality. The majority of parents that smack their children are not abusive by nature. They do so because they are concerned about properly socializing and protecting their offspring, a natural inclination also found in most species of animals. However, these parents often feel bad after physically punishing their child. This indicates that somewhere down deep, they know what they are doing is wrong. Of course they do. Hitting a vulnerable small child is wrong by any standard. So what to do, is there a definite answer? Most parents would gladly opt for other forms of corrective measures if they only worked. The fact is, most psychologists, pediatricians and parents do not object to the occasional implementation of corporal punishment. The evidence has shown that sustained smacking leads to future behavioural problems but an occasional swat to those children under seven years of age used only at last resort complemented with sound judgment and a loving environment is probably the favourable method by which to discipline children. Laws to prohibit smacking, though very well intentioned are unnecessary. However, child abuse is not the same as a gentle swat on the bum and should not be legislated as if it were. References Bargholtz, Helena. (4 June 2004). “Europe-wide Ban on Corporal Punishment of Children.” Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee Doc. 10199. Presented to Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. Accessed 12 December 2006 from Carvel, John. (8 January 2000). “Parents Call for Schools to Bring Back the Cane.” The Guardian. London. Accessed 12 December 2006 from Etheridge, Pat. (14 August, 1997). “Study: Spanking Kids Leads to Long-Term Bad Behavior.” Cable News Network. Accessed 12 December 2006 from Larzelere, Robert E. (2000). “Child Outcomes of Nonabusive and Customary Physical Punishment by Parents: An Updated Literature Review.” Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review. Vol. 3, N. 4, pp. 199-221. Nobes, Gavin. (1997). “Physical Punishment of Children in Two-Parent Families.” Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Vol. 2, N. 2, pp. 271 – 281. SAGE Publications Robinson, B.A. (25 March, 2006). “Corporal Punishment of Children: Spanking.” Religious Tolerance. Accessed 12 December 2006 from Read More