Spanking In Children Essay

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In the United States, spanking is known to be one of the most widely used practices for disciplining preschool-aged children. It has been recorded that at least 94% of 3 to 4 year olds have been spanked at least once during the past year. Spanking a child before the age of 2 is identified with the likelihood of having serious behavioral problems after they start school, about 4 years later (Slade, 2004).
Because spanking is considered so detrimental, it is known to cause aggression. Many of studies using different data research continues to build a strong case that spanking is harmful to children and is associated with children’s greater aggressive behavior (Lee, 2015). The American Academy of Pediatrics has advocated against the use of spanking as a punishing strategy, repeating probable negative outcomes such as increased aggressiveness and physical harm to the child. Psychologist Alan Kazdin claimed that spanking is linked with a host of negative outcomes. They range from aggression, …show more content…

Why is that? Studies advise that mothers spank more often than fathers do, and it may be just because mothers spend a lot more time with younger children, which means that they have more experience engaging in discipline. Children usually respond to mothers’ greater use of physical discipline by becoming more aggressive, and it shows that mothers increase their confidence on spanking in response to children’s aggressive misbehavior. A study done by Berlin et al. (2009) showed that children’s nonsense at age 1 was relevant to more spanking and punishment than children at age 3. Negative child sensitivity at 1 year of age had been correlated with increased maternal spanking at the age of 3. Higher levels of child aggression were shown at age 3 and have been found to predict maternal spanking at age 5. Over all, mothers increase their use of spanking over time in response to children’s increased aggression (Lee,

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