There has always been a lot of debate around whether or not spanking is good or bad for your child. Finally there is some form of substantiation – a new study now reveals that there is a link between spanking and increased risk for detrimental child outcomes.
Elizabeth Gershoff, an associate professor of human development and family sciences at The University of Texas at Austin said in a statement
“Our analysis focuses on what most Americans would recognize as spanking and not on potentially abusive behaviors. 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.”
The study looked at a total of 160,927 children and it concluded that there is an association between spanking – and 13 of the 17 detrimental outcomes they tested for.
You may hear many adults saying there’s nothing wrong with spanking, but now there is a direct correlation that adults who were spanked as a child were actually more likely to suffer mental health problems and to behave in anti-social ways.
The analysis also finds evidence that spanking is associated with troubling outcomes — like increased aggression, greater anti-social behaviour, and mental issues later in life.
Gershoff said
“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 findings from The Harris Poll in 2013, 81% of Americans (78% of American parents) believe that it’s okay to spank a child – that’s 4 out of 5 parents.
Whilst spanking is legal in all U.S states, there are currently proposals to ban spanking in Canada – Government has signalled it may change federal rules surrounding spanking as a punishment and there are many mixed views in this regard.
While many people argue that spanking is a form of child abuse, others believe that it’s a harmless but effective method of discipline.