Spanking children makes them more aggressive, US pediatricians' body says

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

New guidance from the American Association of Pediatricians has found that children who are spanked by their parents are more likely to develop aggressive behaviors and are at an increased risk of mental health disorders.

In a policy statement updating its advice on effective ways to discipline children, the AAP said parents should also avoid “verbal abuse” which could cause “shame or humiliation”.

“Aversive disciplinary strategies, including all forms of corporal punishment and yelling at or shaming children, are minimally effective in the short-term and not effective in the long-term,” the AAP said.

“Researchers link corporal punishment to an increased risk of negative behavioral, cognitive, psychosocial, and emotional outcomes for children.”

-snip-

Adam Gabbatt in New York
Mon 5 Nov 2018 16.01 GMT


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/05/spanking-children-makes-them-more-aggressive-us-pediatricians-body-says

[Achilleaze]

1. "Damn Dirty Donny* and his republican sex kinks." - Stormy

* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief

?1522014321

[no_hypocrisy]

2. I can attest to that.

My father only spanked me once and that was one time too many. I wasn't even 2. I lied about brushing my teeth. Next thing I knew I was speedily picked up, across the knees and two amazingly painful hits across my buttocks. While Dad moved on to verbal and emotional abuse as I matured, the spanking was the true line in the sand. I never trusted or loved him after that. Let's say until he died, we coexisted.

[The Liberal Lion]

4. I can feel what you are saying

I was spanked quite severely as a child. So severe that I left home. I could take it no more. In my adult life my mother (the only person who delivered to me spankings, my step father never did) needed help, as she was poor at budgeting. I refused her every time. When she died I did not attend her funeral, nor did I pay for any part of it, despite the fact that I have plenty and could have easily done so. Plain and simple, you don't hit who you love. Since she did, I concluded that, and therefore I don't love those who would abuse me.

[OriginalGeek]

9. opposite for me

My step-father beat the shit out of me and my younger brothers. I left home at 17 and have never looked back. I spoke to him at my mother's funeral several years back and will not need to speak to him again for as long as we both shall live.

Frankly, it would not surprise me to see him in the news some day as a suspect in some violence against the local police or brown strangers.

[CountAllVotes]

10. Another 17 year old out there on the street trying to make a go of it

That was you and me both.

Looking back, I don't know how I even managed to live through that awful life.

Luckily I had the guts needed and left (not so easy for a 17 year old teenager in the 1970s!).

I had zero regrets.

I am sad to read about your situation.

We have something in common however. We are both survivors!

Hang-in there OriginalGeek!

[OriginalGeek]

15. And you as well CaV!

Like you, I left right after graduation (from a private christian school that also used corporal punishment. The last beating I got there I was a senior in fucking high school. It was because the principal saw me and said "When was the last time I gave you licks? I know you've done something wrong since then - get into my office". ) Those dumbfucks just loved to swing that stick. I hesitate to call it a paddle as that seems to de-emphasize that this was a baseball bat with a flattened end for hitting.


The only good thing to come of all that is I knew what not to do as a man and stepfather and my daughter and step-sons seem to like me. My oldest step-son asked me to be the best man at his wedding and I don't even feel a little bit guilty for the sense of pride that gave me when he asked..

[CountAllVotes]

34. My situation was not good

Alcoholic for a father and a mother that had some serious mental issues.

So yeah, I up and left.

I ended up in college and I asked a man I knew that made jewelry for some ideas as I did not have any food to eat. He gave me $10 in food stamps if I remember right.

My father found out about it and tracked the man down and tried to give him money. He refused to take it and told him that he should be caring for his daughter and stop shooting the wad every month on booze.

My father walked away with a necklace that he bought from the man and I have it still some 40++ years later.

Looking back, I seriously wonder how I lasted given the circumstances.

Your situation sounds horrific!

I attended public school and no matter how much my father complained and made me wear a dress to school every day, they didn't give him the attention he wanted.

So yeah, I left. Who the hell wouldn't?

Take care & thanks for sharing! We will survive!

[gay texan]

18. Was he on his best behavior

Or did he act like a bully when you saw him?

[OriginalGeek]

19. He was around his church folk

so of course he was behaving. lol. He was only an asshole at home. (Or when no other church people were around). He has those people fooled.

[The Liberal Lion]

3. Spanking does not work

As a child I received my fair share of spankings, some of them quite brutal. It never served as a deterrent, but rather only served to make me more cunning in defiance of the rules. Growing into a young adult I saw aggression and violence as the only way to deal with anger. The abused become the abusers. Luckily I had the opportunity to study psychology at both the undergrad and graduated level. One of the first lessons I was taught was the futility of punishment. My opinion, corporal punishment should be outlawed. Plain and simple. It should be treated like child abuse.

[Judi Lynn]

11. It is child abuse. It takes a terrible toll on the spirit and emotional well being of the child,

makes him/her old before his/her time, teaches him/her to not trust others automatically, for survival purposes.

Quite the legacy to leave in the child's heart, and view of his/her world.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. It's barbaric. K&R.

[Jedi Guy]

6. Interesting.

I was spanked as a child (and paddled by a teacher in first grade... gotta love Mississippi). Once I was older it became loss of privileges and/or grounding. I haven't had issues with violence or mental illness, nor do I resent my parents for spanking me.

However, that's my anecdotal experience. Hopefully more parents abandon corporal punishment, given these results.

[LanternWaste]

7. And what is the specific relevance of that vis-a-vis both the study and its results?

"However, that's my anecdotal experience..."

As I didn't see in the article any premise or conclusion leading to the inference "spanking WILL lead to...", merely that's it's an additional causal factor.

[Jedi Guy]

23. Is there a reason you stalk certain people?

I'm just asking, because it's not just me that's noticed it. You're also not interested in discussion, it seems, given that you do a drive-by post and never respond thereafter.

You also had nothing to say about anyone else's anecdotes. Just mine. It's not as if I refuted the study based on my experience, either. I commented that I was spanked and suffered no lasting effects.

Oh well, until your next drive-by, then...

[CountAllVotes]

8. My father kept a leather belt in the hall closet

He didn't like to use it but he sure as hell did at times!

I moved OUT of that household when I was 17 years old; one long week after I completed high school! It was a very NEGATIVE and abusive environment.

Mother was no better, if anything worse!

Glad to see this is getting some attention.

Beating your kids is not a good idea at all. It accomplishes nothing positive, it only creates hatred and a dysfunctional life.

[JI7]

12. it makes them angry and resentful

while they are young they might "behave" in the moment after you spank them becsuse of fear.

but it will result in something inside of them that can come out as they get older and it won't be good.

[Cold War Spook]

13. I am 75 and got a spanking now and then.

I ended up just fine and so did my sister and all my cousins. The report is worthless. It does not state what percentage of children became more aggressive.

[Drahthaardogs]

17. It's a psychological study, where p-values are unicorns

And blinded studies are Bigfoot. Tangible measurements are like Nessie

[byronius]

14. Yup.

I'm a survivor too, and I've had to deal with the aftereffects my entire life.

Neither of my children have ever been physically or verbally abused; both are good people, sensible, academic powerhouses.

The only thing I've ever demanded from them is that they honor the new family tradition: no child of this family will ever be abused or allowed to be abused. And they've agreed.

I do carry a trigger about it. If I see someone publicly shame or abuse a child, they're taking their life into their hands. I've successfully held this temper in check until now, but it is only with great effort. My first instinct is to be absolutely brutal.

It's my life issue. Carry it with me to my grave.

[Drahthaardogs]

16. I was spanked.

I don't hate my parents. I didn't run away from home. I speak to them regularly. I love them.

I suspect some of these stories would have had similar outcomes spanking or not.

In fact, my stepdaughter is and was verbally and emotionally abusive to her mother and I. I have no desire to ever see her again.

Abuse is abuse. Discipline is discipline. There is a difference.

[ManiacJoe]

20. There is a difference between a spanking and a beating.

Far too many people on both sides of the issue do not understand this.

[obamanut2012]

22. Wrong -- they are both hitting and a crime to do to an adult

Unless consensual.

The only difference is the level of physical damage. It is still assualt, and mentally demenaing and humiliating.

Period.

[ManiacJoe]

31. While what you say may be true,

none of it contradicts what I said.

[OriginalGeek]

35. well all I can tell you is I got both

so I know the difference and still neither accomplished anything but making me hate my attackers. People who were SUPPOSED to be looking out for me, taking care of me, inspiring me, teaching me. It's a shitty way to grow up.

[ManiacJoe]

36. Sorry to hear it.

No child deserves a beating.

[obamanut2012]

21. If it is a crime to hit an adult, it should be illegal to hit a child

Period.

And yes, spanking is hitting. It is physically and mentally demeaning and humiliating, as well.

I know DU has it's child-hitting advocates, so break out the popcorn for this.

[Jake Stern]

24. According to AAP:

Having a doctor slice up my son's healthy penis = groovy

Swatting his hands = monstrous act of abuse

Unreal.

[yuiyoshida]

25. I was beaten as a child

and at 18 thrown out of the house. My parents live in Las Vegas now and I live in San Francisco, and neither acknowledges that the other exist. I had always been told I was a mistake, though as a Child I was constantly abused, until moved out and lived with an older young woman who was ten years on me. She considered me her lover, but I just considered her my adopted Mom.. till she died a few years ago..I had moved into my own place by then.

[JuJuYoshida]

27. I'm so sorry you grew up that way honey :(

But you turned out to be such a kind, generous and loving woman. You make me laugh and smile every day Yui.

[yuiyoshida]

28. awes...

[TomVilmer]

26. How much corporal punishment are there in US schools?

I ask as a foreigner - who got beaten badly in my Danish school, until this was outlawed and converted to psychological abuse. Many Scandinavian movies has this as a theme, but it is seldom to see in movies from the US - where focus is on systematic abuse between students.

I have looked at the statistics, which show quite little:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5766273/

So - how much corporal punishment are really happening in US schools?

[ManiacJoe]

37. Doing no research,

I would say that virtually all public schools have done away with it as have almost all private schools.
But I may be underestimating it based on your linked document.

[TomVilmer]

38. Thanx for answer!

The statistics is telling it exists as a threat, but are not used that often. I am still curious why it is quite seldom to see described in books and movies as a theme.

[TexasBushwhacker]

29. Worth noting, it also says rewarding good behavior

works far better at creating healthy habits than punishing bad behavior.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

30. I am always disturbed by those who say,

"I was spanked as a child" or even "I was severely beaten as a child" and go on to claim they are just fine. Okay, so lots of us were spanked as children and didn't turn into mass murderers or CEOs of large corporations, but still, as others have pointed out, if it's not an appropriate way to treat an adult then it's not an appropriate way to treat a child.

My second son was far more challenging than my first, and it took me a while to learn that punitive actions almost never worked with him. Rewarding and praising good behavior was astonishingly successful.

[Hav]

32. The results makes sense

What kind of lesson is beating/spanking? It's "education" not by appealing to reason but to violence, intimidation, pain. It's simply a bad model. You teach that you don't need to persuade people or solve conflicts by other means when it's your experience that there is also the easy option of violence. Is it any wonder that this learnt lesson is then passed on when it worked so well?

[hunter]

33. My mom would have beaten the shit out of any adult who hit me or my siblings.

In Viking times she'd have been wearing mummified bits of people she'd fought, mostly man bits, as a necklace.

It was a double-edged sword for me, I always felt safe at home, but not at school.

Whenever I got beaten bloody by bullies at school, our school administrators were frequently too timid to call my mom. Sometimes I didn't want to push it for fear of Berserker mom showing up. My mom is bipolar, though she'll never confess it, and during her manic phases she's 100% Norse warrior.

I recognized later that many of the bullies who were tormenting me in middle and high school we're being beaten at home by their own parents. Then they'd come to school and take it out on me, queerbait.

I solved my high school bully problem by quitting it.

Me and my siblings were never taught to accept physical punishment of any sort, or to blindly accept any authority. More wonderfully we never had our innate human curiosity beaten out of us.

I generally feel sorry for those trained from infancy to accept authoritarian/punishment culture... well up until they do something stupid like voting Republican.