Use of Spanking as Punishment - Research Paper Example

Spanking Children Spanking has been used as a form of corporal punishment in homes and schools for a long time and it continues to be used as such. In the past, spanking was considered as a necessary procedure in order to ensure discipline among the children. Spanking was actively used as a punishment for any kind of misbehavior by the children. However, in the recent past there has been a significant debate regarding the effectiveness of spanking children. The evolution in the different cultures all around the globe has led to this discussion that spanking may not be as effective for making children disciplined as it was considered to be. The recent awareness regarding the psychological impacts of spanking has made people realize that it is not a proper way of punishment. However, in some cultures it is still believed that spanking is highly essential for proper nurturing of the discipline of children. Some cultures actively endorse the idea of spanking children and consider it a necessary part of the behavioral development of the children. Some experts in psychology have come forward with some research works that prove that spanking is not an effective way of corporal punishment and they show some of the most detrimental impacts that spanking can have on the behavior of children. The research work in the recent past has made numerous people realize that spanking children is not a good idea (Berlin, 7). In this paper, an analysis would be made regarding the use of spanking in schools and homes, how the attitudes of people changed regarding spanking of children, the negative aspects of spanking, the impacts of spanking on the behavior of children, and whether spanking should be used as a way of punishment for children. The paper would attempt to show that spanking has a detrimental impact on the behavior of children and it should be abandoned completely. Use of Spanking as Punishment Spanking has been used as a way of punishment for a very long time and it was considered as a duty of the parents to punish their children when appropriate. In numerous cultures parents have perceived themselves to have a duty to make their children disciplined and spanking the children has been considered as a right of the parents. Even though it has become widely known that spanking is not as effective for punishment as it was perceived to be, parents continue to punish their children (Stacks, 190). Some of the countries have outlawed the use of spanking as punishment however spanking is still legal in numerous countries as long as it is “reasonable”. What is considered reasonable is a question of fact therefore the laws regarding spanking are vague in such countries. Countries including Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and United States have allowed the parents to use spanking as punishment to the children when it is considered appropriate. Even though there has been debate regarding the banning of the punishment but such debates have had no impact on the laws. Spanking has also been used as a way of punishment in schools for a very long time. It used to be common form of punishment to ensure school discipline. However, in most of the countries spanking in schools has been discontinued after it raised significant controversy. It has been debated several times that spanking children in schools does not make them disciplined but it makes them disturbed and stressful. Even though the punishment has been discontinued in a number of countries, some cultures actively endorse the fact that spanking is an essential punishment for the right behavioral development of children. On the other hand, some of the countries like India have provided laws that actively seek to initiate disciplinary procedures against the teachers who subject children to physical or mental harassment. Even though spanking is still used in homes and schools in a number of countries, the extent to which it is used has declined significantly. Till the 1950s, people believed that spanking is completely essential for proper upbringing of a child and in order to make sure that the child learns discipline. However, the attitudes of people in many countries started to change when Dr. Spock published an article titled ‘Baby and Child Care’ which included convincing details regarding how a parent should treat the child. According to the article, parents should treat the children as individuals and they should provide them their own space to nurture rather than punishing them and focusing on making them disciplined. Thus the trend in use of spanking as punishment has significantly declined ever since and the article attracted the focus of psychological experts towards the issue and further research work was carried out. The changing attitudes and evidence of inefficiency of spanking has led a number of parents and teachers to completely abandon spanking as a way of punishment. Reasons to abstain from Spanking Children After the awareness regarding the negative impacts of spanking on children, people have started to discourage the use of spanking as a corporal punishment. There are numerous negative aspects of spanking. A number of psychological experts have provided their opinion supported by their research work which sheds light upon the negative influences of spanking on the mental health of children and the negative influences on the behavior of children when they grow up. Following are some of the negative aspects of spanking which have come to foreground in the recent past: 1. Negative Learning It is commonly known that children imitate what they see and especially they like to imitate their elders and specially their loved ones. Children perceive that whatever their parents do is right and it is okay for them to do the same. Children remember the way they are treated and they try to imitate the same behavior on others. Therefore, when spanking is used on children, children perceive that it is the right thing for the parents to do and they repeat this attitude on others, especially younger ones considering it the right thing to do. For children, spanking teaches them that it is completely okay for big people to hit little people and similarly, it is okay for stronger people to hit weaker people. Thus, spanking teaches children to have a violent attitude towards their younger ones and those who are weaker. A child who is controlled by use of spanking is more likely to use the same behavior with siblings, spouse and offspring (Lansford el al, 226). The family is like an institute where children are taught how to face different aspects of life by their parents and one of those teachings include the way conflicts should be handled. Psychological experts have come forward with the view that children who belong to families in which spanking was used on a regular basis tend to use aggression in order to handle conflicts. Most parents believe that spanking does not have any lasting impact on the children and it is merely a temporary punishment that keeps the children in control of the parents, but this belief has been proven to wrong. Spanking has a lasting mental impact on the children and it plays a significantly important part in the overall nurturing of the children. Some parents are of the view that they use spanking least often and they show more kindness and love towards their children. This view can be right for some children but studies show that most of the children remember the spanking more than the love and kindness from their parents. Thus, the idea of spanking somehow remains in the mind of the children even when they grow up. Spanking by angry parents has even more detrimental influences on children as it shows to the children that it is completely okay to hit someone in anger (Boutwell, 562). Thus, in a way, spanking originates the violent behavior of children in their social interaction. Therefore, it can be inferred that spanking does not make a child disciplined but it endorses negative learning which is applied by the child repeatedly when the child is grown up. 2. Demolition of the Self-Image of Children The process of the building of self-image for a child depends upon how he is treated by others especially by his parents. A child considers himself to be special only when he is treated like that. Spanking does not only hinder the proper behavioral development of a child, it also has detrimental impacts on the building of the self-image of a child as well. When a child is loved by his parents and he is spanked occasionally too, he gets confused and his perception of his own importance is deteriorated. Parents try to spend significant amount of their time attempting to make the child feel special but they spank the child for smallest of mistakes, the child gets confused and perceives himself to be bad. Deterioration of self-image is one of the main reasons behind violent behavior as well (Knox et al, 26). Spanking also causes the children to be withdrawn from their surroundings. Since the children consider themselves to be bad and worthless, they choose to stay alone. Such children do not take interest in playmates and they also avoid any eye contact with their parents. Thus, being withdrawn shows that the child considers himself to be not so important and therefore this idea remains in the mind of the children even when they grow up. The deteriorated self-image causes hindrances in the way a person interacts socially. 3. Increase in Misbehavior It is commonly believed by parents that spanking is used as a way to make their children disciplined and to make them behave properly. However, the truth is otherwise. Spanking does not improve a child’s behavior, it makes it worse. It has been heard several times that parents complain about not getting the expected results from spanking. This is because the very concept that spanking can improve a child’s behavior is wrong. A child who is hit by his parents feels that he is bad, therefore he misbehaves and again for his misbehavior he gets spanked by his parents and the feeling strengthens. Thus, it becomes a cycle and the more the parents spank the child, the more the child misbehaves (Davis, 59). Like mentioned earlier, spanking makes the child think he has lost value, therefore he misbehaves because he feels that his value is already lost. 4. Psychological Impacts Spanking can be mentally disturbing for the children. As mentioned earlier, spanking has lasting impacts on the behavior of the children, and this is because of the psychological impacts of spanking. Spanking can distort the memories of the childhood of an individual. When a child is physically hit by his parents, he is more likely to recall all the traumatic times of his life. Therefore, when a child recalls the traumatic events repeatedly, these events will move to the long term memory of a child and thus, when the child grows up, the joyful memories of the child’s life would be eclipsed by the traumatic memories. This will have detrimental psychological impacts and an individual may show symptoms of stress and depression in his life (Christie-Mizell et al, 339). Conclusion Spanking has been used as a corporal punishment all around the world for a very long time however the attitudes of people towards spanking have changed in the past few decades. A number of studies have showed that spanking does not help in making a child disciplined but it makes a child more disturbed, and it enhances the feeling of having no value among the children. A number of cultures have completely abandoned the use of spanking on children but some of the cultures in the world still endorse spanking as a proper way to make a child disciplined. From the negative impacts that spanking can have on the children, it can be concluded that spanking has a detrimental impact on the behavior of children and it should be abandoned completely. Works Cited Berlin, Lisa J, et al. "Correlates and Consequences of Spanking and Verbal Punishment for Low-Income White, African American, and Mexican American Toddlers." Child Development 80.5 (2009): 1403-1420. Boutwell, Brian B, et al. "Physical punishment and childhood aggression: the role of gender and gene-environment interplay." Aggressive Behavior 37.6 (2011): 559-568. Christie-Mizell, C. André, Erin M Pryor and Elizabeth R. B Grossman. "Child Depressive Symptoms, Spanking, and Emotional Support: Differences Between African American and European American Youth." Family Relations 57.3 (2008): 335-350. Davis, Richard L. "Physical assaults against children." Journal of Aggression, Conflict & Peace Research 4.1 (2012): 54-61. Knox, Michele and Jennifer Lentini. "On Spanking." Pediatrics for Parents 26.5/6 (2010): 25-27. Lansford, Jennifer E, et al. "Forms of Spanking and Children's Externalizing Behaviors." Family Relations 51.2 (2012): 224-236. Stacks, Ann Michele, et al. "The moderating effect of parental warmth on the association between spanking and child aggression: a longitudinal approach." Infant & Child Development 18.2 (2009): 178-194. Read More