Spanking has been a form of punishment used by many parents for years. Parents view spanking as an effective form of punishment that gets the point across to the child that they should not do the bad things that they received that punishment for. Most children are spanked from age two until almost ten years old. However, many studies have shown that spanking has led to many emotional and physical diseases. Spanking is a violent punishment that should not be used to punish children. The line between spanking and child abuse is very thin, and a parent could go too far.
Spanking is a form of corporal punishment. It is still used in schools in twenty-one states. This means that, with your permission, a principal can spank your child. That alone is controversial because of the line between sexual harassment and that form of punishment in the school system. States define the line of child abuse and spanking as hitting with objects or using unreasonable force. (Belkin) So, when a parent spanks with a paddle or a wooden spoon, it is child abuse. The parent thinks it’s a simple spank, but it crosses the line. Crossing the child abuse line happens frequently when using spanking as punishment. Sometimes it goes beyond using an object and it continues in being hit in the face. Spanking is the gate to the child abuse line. It is confusing to children when they are young and do not get an explanation to what they did wrong.
When a young child is spanked, they do not understand the reason why. They do not get an explanation as to what they did wrong, even if they did, they are too young to know right from wrong. They are still in the developmental stages mentally, which means they could assume that hitting is a way to resolve a problem with s...
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A parent’s right to spank their child has been an issue of great debate for a long time. On one side of the debate are people who feel that to strike a child in any way automatically constitutes abuse. The opposing side believes that parents are within their legal and, more importantly, their moral rights to discipline their child as they see fit. As one can imagine, the former are routinely portrayed to be overly humanistic and ultra-liberal, while the latter are almost always smeared as right-wing bible thumpers and uneducated miscreants.
Spanking doesn’t allow children to learn the reasons why to act appropriately. When parents use physical punishment, such as spanking, to discipline their children, they do so in order to improve their child’s behavior. According to a report composed by a lead researcher in the field of pediatrics, spanking does not teach children the reason for why they are being punished or why their behavior was wrong. Spanking teaches children to act in a desired way only because of fear of being punished. Being a victim of spanking, I only feared the idea of being spanked, and that is why I changed my behavior for the time being. I did not actually understand the reasoning for why I was being punished. Spanked children do not understand the positive and important reasons for acting properly.
Spanking is an important aspect of a child’s social development and should not be considered an evil form of abuse. In her argument, Debra Saunders says that there is an obvious difference between beating a child and spanking a child, and parents know the boundary. Spanking is the most effective form of discipline when a child knows doing something is wrong, but the child does it anyway. A child who is properly disciplined through spanking is being taught how to control her or his impulses and how to deal with all types of authorities in future environments. Parents can control their child’s future behavior by using spanking in early childhood, because if...
When describing a physical altercation between two adults, the term is assault and battery. Assault on an individual has more than immediate effects; the effects can last a lifetime in severe cases. In all fifty states, it is a crime to hit, strike or use corporal punishment in any deliberate manner towards any person over the age of eighteen. However, this law does not apply to physical force being used on minors. Spanking, whipping, and paddling are among a few common references to this form of punishment. Physically disciplining children has had many names over the years. No matter which term is used, corporal punishment has a negative impact on every party involved. It is a widely used, socially accepted method of discipline. “Approximately 94% of three and four-year old children have been spanked in the past year (Slade & Winssow 1321). Although spanking is a widespread practice, it is becoming more controversial. The negative effects of spanking greatly outweigh the benefits. Spanking is a socially tolerated view promoting abusive patterns, and has a negative psychological impact in teaching children that pain, fear, and confusion promote conformability.
Critics of spanking need to understand that spanking and abuse are not the same. Spanking is a quick squat on the buttock that causes temporary pain. Child abuse is physical injury such as beating, kicking, or punching a child with cruel intent. Psychiatrist William Glasser makes a distinction between the two. Glasser explains, “Discipline is directed at the objectionable behavior, and the child will accept its consequences without resentment.” By contrast, he defined punishment as, “A response that is directed at the individual” (qtd. in Dobson 96). Spanking allows room for forgiveness and reconciliation. Abuse comes from a place of hostility. It is harsh and leaves little room for forgiveness or reconciliation. Yes, spanking may cause brief discomfort, but it is not the same as beating, punching, or kicking a child.
The use of spanking is one of the most controversial parenting practices and also one of the oldest, spanning throughout many generations. Spanking is a discipline method in which a supervising adult deliberately inflicts pain upon a child in response to a child’s unacceptable behaviour. Although spanking exists in nearly every country and family, its expression is heterogeneous. First of all the act of administering a spanking varies between families and cultures. As Gershoff (2002) pointed out, some parents plan when a spanking would be the most effective discipline whereas some parents spank impulsively (Holden, 2002). Parents also differ in their moods when delivering this controversial punishment, some parents are livid and others try and be loving and reason with the child. Another source of variation is the fact that spanking is often paired with other parenting behaviours such as, scolding, yelling, or perhaps raging and subsequently reasoning. A third source of variation concerns parental characteristics. Darling and Steinberg (1993) distinguished between the content of parental acts and the style in which it was administered (Holden, 2002). With all this variation researchers cannot definitively isolate the singular effects of spanking.
Spanking a child is a controversial issue. On one side of the debate are people who believe spanking is a necessary component of parenting. On the contrary are people who think spanking a child is destructive. Somewhere in the middle are people who believe spanking is legitimate only when used correctly. Part of the reason for the debate is that some parents and experts define spanking differently. To some, spanking means slapping a child on the rear-end, while others believe it is a form of corporal punishment that does not cause injury. By showing how each perspective of spanking supports their claim and defining spanking, one will be able to form an opinion.
Many authorities and psychologists believe that spanking breaks a child's spirit and only leads to violence. They think that it causes the child to become depressed, angry or hostile and they have conducted many studies to prove these things. This type of harsh punishment occurs often, but it is called child abuse. There is a great difference between abusing a child and properly disciplining a child. "One is an act of love; the other is an act of hostility, and they are as different as night and day" (Dobson 35).
Spanking teaches the child that violence is a socially accepted behavior to attain a desired result. To better understand this concept, we must first look at how a child’s brain works. From infancy, children learn through observation and imitation. Studies have shown that infants as young as forty-two minutes can successfully replicate simple facial expressions (Metzloff, Decety 492). By eight months, infants can imitate basic motor movement, even after twenty-four hours have passed since the initial movement occurred. At fourteen months, children can apply an imitation to an external situation up to a week after the initial imitation. (Windell, 67-68, 221). A famous example of this is Albert Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment. Christopher Green of York University helps interpret Bandura’s experiment and results: While acknowledging that certain children may have inherited aggressive personalities, Bandura demonstrated that the majority of personality is learned. Adult models were escorted to a room and shown various toys to play with while child observers watched from outside the room. Among the various toys was a clown “bobo” doll. In some “play” sessions, the models demonstrated aggression toward the doll by punching, kicking, hitting and yelling at it. In other sessions, the models quietly pla...
Educators and parents usually administer spankings to children. Spanking usually refers to a child lying, stomach down, across the educator's lap and the parent or teacher repeatedly swatting the child's backside.
Swat! The entire store tries not to stare at the overwhelmed mother spanking her three-year-old whaling son. As if the screaming tantrum wasn't enough of a side show at the supermarket. This method, or technique perhaps, has been around for decades, even centuries. Generations have sat on grandpa’s lap and listened to the stories of picking their own switch or getting the belt after pulling off a devilish trick. So why then has it become a major controversy in the past few decades? The newest claim is that spanking and other forms of physical punishment can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children. Brendan L. Smith uses many case studies and psychologists findings in his article “The Case Against Spanking” to suggest that parents refrain from physically punishing their children due to lasting harmful effects.
"Spanking doesn 't work, and it just makes kids mistrustful and aggressive. What we 're teaching them is fear rather than responsibility and problem-solving." said Kimberly Sirl, a clinical psychologist at St. Louis Children 's Hospital (Blythe). This is important because parents need to understand spanking doesn 't work and it results that the child becomes aggressive and mistrustful. Parents are trying to teach their child a lesson but instead making them fearful. Children will be aggressive and think violence is the answer to everything. The point of spanking is to teach the child what they did was wrong but kids don 't get that message when they get physically abused. It teaches them the wrong lesson and they think that it 's okay to spank kids so when they get older they will probably do the same thing. Corporal punishment of a child by a caregiver is legal in every state, but it crosses the line to abuse when a child is injured. Doctors and teachers are required to report to authorities any marks, bruises, cuts or other injuries inflicted on a child (Blythe). Anyone who is a caregiver of a child is legally allowed to hit the child. It only becomes an issue or problem when the child is left with bruises, marks, and injuries. If a doctor or teacher were to see any type of bruise on the child they are required to report it. There is spanking a
Smith, B. L. (2012). The case against spanking. American Psychological Association, 43(4), 60. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/spanking.aspx
Some people believe spanking a child is child abuse, and that it causes the child to grow up aggressive and violent. This would mean that every child that is spanked during their developmental stages will grow up to be an example of bad behavior. However, there is no actual data or information that can confirm that spanking a child will cause a child to grow up to be violent or too aggressive. Children have been trained to obey rules or a set code of behavior for centuries. It is the best way to mold a child to be a respectable adult, and they can pass on the behavior to their future children. It may not always happen, but its pretty effective.
It has been said that “spanking trains children ‘in violence and domination’, even when it’s moderate” (Saunders 1)...