Corporal Punishment In The United States

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Corporal punishment is defined as the act of punishing a child by spanking them or hitting them with an object. The purpose of physically punishing children is to try to get a point across, and teach them that their actions are wrong. In the United States today, there are 19 different states that allow corporal punishment to be be given to a child by authority figures such as schools or daycares. All states in the United States allow corporal punishment to be used within the household. Parents all over the world use this approach on their children and rely on it through out their children’s lives. Mental outcomes of corporal punishment can be severe, for example, if a child gets spanked in class or in a public environment they could become …show more content…

Corporal punishment is often a way parents or guardians try to get their children to cooperate with what they want them to do or to let them know if something is not okay for them to do, hoping they will remember the pain to make it not happen again in the future, as stated by Mulvaney and Merbert in the article Stress Appraisal and Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment as Intervening Processes Between Corporal Punishment and Subsequent Mental Health (34). Corporal punishment could also start leading to aggressive behavior because that is all they know, and it could cause them to become more aggressive toward their peers or partners later in life. Corporal punishment can cause long term effects as well as short term effects in a childs life. Corporal punishment as a child leads to aggressive behavior; therefore, it is very possible that it could cause aggressive relationships down the road having to do with your significant other. Corporal punishment could cause many different issues, whether it is at home or in school. The outcomes are unpredictable and could cause a lot of mental damage to the …show more content…

Corporal punishment causes Corporal punishment pushes toward negative mental health results. Mulvaney and Merbert found that self esteem and depression are the main two outcomes from a child being physically punished (403). The child is likely to believe everyone is out to get them and that would cause them to be more aggressive. Long term aggression and anti social behavior is also an outcome from corporal punishment. Gershoff found in one of his studies that one of the most typical outcomes of corporal punishment could be violence, such as hitting, pushing, or kicking other students in the class, or the anti social behavior that could be stealing stuff from other students or the class room, or lying to to authority figures (38). If a child is more violent then that could cause them to get into more legal trouble with the police. Corporal punishment could also cause hurt to children, such as leaving them with bruises they feel they need to hide in public, and it could cause them to be severely injured. Anxiety is another common side effect that comes with being physically punished. The stress is likely to cause temporary stress that while being repeated can make a long term permanent effect likely to occur (37). Corporal punishment doesn’t only hurt the child’s mental health, but it also has negative effects on the brain. Physically punishing a child hurts the child mentally, physically, and it also

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