Child Discipline

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Children in today’s society seems to be more “out of control” than prior generations. Is this due to lack of discipline? For generations children were spanked, had their mouths smacked when back talking, or other various forms of discipline that today would be viewed as child abuse. With today’s generation, when spanking, if a mark is left on that child for longer than 24 hours, it is considered child abuse. How did society, who once thought spanking was okay, go to not seeing eye to eye? Through many years of research, psychologist are beginning to see that spanking or being aggressive with children has long term effects on those children.

What exactly is considered child discipline? It is the set of rules, rewards and punishments used to teach self-control. It is used to increase desirable behaviors and decrease undesirable behaviors in children. When discipline is used in excess, the desirable behaviors parents are trying to get from their children, turns into undesirable ones. The child learns to become scared of a parent. This fear turns into anxiety which can eventually lead to depression. “The undesirable side effects would include aggression, anti-social behavior, and masochism.” (Marshall 1).

Dr. Marshall, a clinical psychologist, has a new book which summarizes the research findings about the harmful effects of corporal punishment to help make informed decisions about how to raise their children, rather than default to how their parents raised them. “The harmful psychological effects of spanking are the best kept secret in developmental psychology,” says Marshall. (Marshall 2) “I am convinced parents would abandon the use of corporal punishment to discipline their children if they fully understood these research find...

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...line your child without hitting.

Pg. 219-224; http://www.nospank.net/hyman2.htm; http://www.temple.edu/temple_times/2-17-05/hyman.html

Marshall, Michael J (2002). Whey spanking doesn’t work; stopping this bad habit and getting the upper hand on effective discipline”. http://stopspanking.com/. Retrieved March 11, 2012 from College Virtual Library database and stopspanking.com

Phelan, Thomas (2004). “1-2-3 Magic”. Retrieved March 11, 2012 from College Virtual Library database.

Wilson, Elaine. “Guiding Young Children Series: Discipline without Punishment”. http://osufacts.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2424/T-2328web.pdf. Retrieved March 11, 2012.

Wyckoff, Jerry (2002). “Discipline without shouting or spanking: practical solutions to the most common preschool behavior problems”. Retrieved March 11, 2012 from College Virtual Library database.

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