Disciplining young children is one of the key jobs of any parent -
most people would have no trouble agreeing with that. But whether or not
that discipline should include spanking or other forms of corporal punishment is a
far trickier issue.
The American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) does not endorse spanking for any
reason, citing its lack of long-term effectiveness as a
behavior-changing tactic. Instead the AAP supports strategies such as
"time-outs" when children misbehave, which focus on getting kids to
reflect on their behavior and the consequences of their actions. Still,
as many parents can attest, few responses bring about the immediate
interruption of a full-blown tantrum like a swift whack to the bottom. (See
pictures of the evolution of the college dorm.)
Now researchers at Tulane University provide the strongest
evidence yet against the use of spanking: of the nearly 2,500 youngsters
in the study, those who were spanked more frequently at age 3 were more
likely to be aggressive by age 5. The research supports earlier work on
the pitfalls of corporal punishment, including a study by Duke University researchers
that revealed that infants who were spanked at 12 months scored lower
on cognitive tests
at age 3.
"I'm excited by the idea that there is now some nice
hard data that can back up clinicians when they share their caution with
parents against using corporal punishment," says Dr. Jayne Singer,
clinical director of the child and parent program at Children's Hospital
Boston, who was not involved in the study. (Read
"Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?")
Led by Catherine Taylor, the Tulane study was the
first to control simultaneously for variables that are most likely to
confound the association between spanking and later aggressive behavior. The
researchers accounted for factors such as acts of neglect by the mother,
violence or aggression between the parents, maternal stress and
depression, the mother's use of alcohol and drugs, and even whether the
mother considered abortion while pregnant with the child.
Each of these factors contributed to children's
aggressive behavior at age 5, but they could not explain all of the
violent tendencies at that age. Further, the positive connection between
spanking and aggression remained strong, even after these factors had
been accounted for.
"The odds of a child being more aggressive at age 5
if he had been spanked more than twice in the month before the study
began increased by 50%," says Taylor. And because her group also
accounted for varying levels of natural aggression in children, the
researchers are confident that "it's not just that children who are more
aggressive are more likely to be spanked."
What the study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics,
shows is that outside of the most obvious factors that may influence
violent behavior in children, spanking remains a strong predictor. "This
study controls for the most common risk factors that people tend to think of as
being associated with aggression," says Singer. "This adds more
credence, more data and more strength to the argument against using corporal punishment."
Among the mothers who were studied, nearly half
(45.6%) reported no spanking in the previous month; 27.9% reported
spanking once or twice; and 26.5% reported spanking more than twice.
Compared with children who were not hit, those who were spanked were
more likely to be defiant, demand immediate satisfaction of their wants
and needs, get frustrated easily, have temper tantrums and lash out
physically against others.
The reason for that, says Singer, may be that
spanking instills fear rather than understanding. Even if a child were
to stop his screaming tantrum when spanked, that doesn't mean he
understands why he shouldn't be acting out in the first place. What's
more, spanking models aggressive
behavior as a solution to problems.
For children to understand what and why they have
done something wrong, it may take repeated efforts on the parent's part,
using time-outs - a strategy that typically involves denying the child
any attention, praise or interaction with parents for a specified period
of time (that is, the parents ignore the child). These quiet times
force children to calm down and learn to think about their emotions,
rather than acting out on them blindly.
Spanking may stop a child from misbehaving in the
short term, but it becomes less and less effective with repeated use,
according to the AAP; it also makes discipline more difficult as the
child gets older and outgrows spanking. As the latest study shows,
investing the time early on to teach a child why his behavior is wrong
may translate to a more self-aware and in-control youngster in the long
run.