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Researcher Says a Little Spanking Is Good for Kids
Filed under: In The News
Can spanking make a child more successful? Credit: jupiterimages
She's a psychology professor at Calvin College, a Christian liberal arts school in Grand Rapids, Mich., who says spanking children is not a bad thing. In fact, she says, kids who get the occasional smack on the rump before the age of 6 grow up to be more successful adults.
Gunnoe interviewed 2,600 people about spanking before presenting her conclusions to the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). She claims children who got spanked as toddlers and preschoolers also are more likely to do volunteer work and attend college after high school.
"The claims that are made for not spanking children fail to hold up," she tells the London Daily Mail. "I think of spanking as a dangerous tool, but then there are times when there is a job big enough for a dangerous tool. You don't use it for all your jobs."
Gunnoe studied spanking for more than 10 years.
"This in no way should be thought of as a green light for spanking," she tells the Grand Rapids Press of her research. "This is a red light for people who want to legally limit how parents choose to discipline their children."
However, the SRCD issued a press release on Sept. 15, 2009, that takes a dimmer view of spanking than the one Gunnoe presented to the group.
The press release says researchers from Harvard, Duke and several other universities interviewed roughly the same number of people as Gunnoe, and concluded that spanking 1-year-olds "leads to more aggressive and less sophisticated cognitive development in the next two years."
Spanking is generally no longer in vogue, Gabe Griffin, of the group Pediatric Psychologists of West Michigan, tells the Grand Rapids Press.
The majority of adults were spanked when they were kids, he tells the paper, but now even grandparents think smacking kids on the rear is unacceptable.
"It can very easily cross over from a discipline in a calm, measured way to an out-of-control moment," he says. "Parents always think it's in a controlled manner, but clearly it's not. Obviously it's not going to harm every kid, but the potential is there and it isn't worth the risk."
Gunnoe insists she's not an advocate for spanking.
"I don't promote spanking, but there's not the evidence to outlaw it," she tells the Press.
Related: Spanking Lovers IQ, According to Study, Will Spanking Kids Provoke Sexual Problems?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
1-05-2010 @ 2:29PM
aurorab981 said...Spanking is something that should not be taken lightly,but should not be made illegal either. i am a mom of 2 and i do spank my children when i feel it is absolutely necessary.ie: when they are doing something harmful or dangerous or when time outs and taking away privliges fail to be effective. you could take everthing away from my 6 year old and she will not care and time outs do not work well on her either(as in she will hoot holler and whine for the entire time out and if more time is added it only makes it worse.)because of that i have decided that one quick and firm spank to the bottom may be necessary when other tactics are inefective. the one spank to the bottom is effective enough to get her attention and get her to understand that the way that she is behaving is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.then she is sent to her room.if spanking makes kids grow up to be lunatics then most of us would be considered mentally ill.
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4-27-2011 @ 10:08PM
todd said...It has been my experience as someone who was spanked that Positive Discipline by Jane Nelsen has helped me understand my children in a different way and has helped me never spank them. It has shown me that taking things away, which happened to me regularly as a child is not beneficial either. P.D. has aided us when we thought there was no other way. It clearly has shown their is and I can't recommend it enough. Best regards,
1-05-2010 @ 3:19PM
phoenixmichaelson said...The vast majority of professionals agree that child buttock-battering isn’t healthy. A marginal few (mostly religious fundamentalists as those at Calvin) think that child bottom-slapping is good. They use the same selective literalist interpretation of the Bible as was used to justify “witch”-burning, depraved torture methods for those accused of sin and heresy, slavery, racism, wife-beating, oppression of women and a host of other social ills.
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1-06-2010 @ 6:48AM
David Ramsey said...Maybe you should actually read the article before commenting.
1-05-2010 @ 3:21PM
phoenixmichaelson said...Child buttock-battering vs. DISCIPLINE:
Child buttock-battering (euphemistically labeled "spanking","swatting","switching","smacking", "paddling",or other cute-sounding names) for the purpose of gaining compliance is nothing more than an inherited bad habit.
Its a good idea for people to take a look at what they are doing, and learn how to DISCIPLINE instead of hit.
I think the reason why television shows like "Supernanny" and "Dr. Phil" are so popular is because that is precisely what many (not all) people are trying to do.
There are several reasons why child bottom-slapping isn't a good idea. Here are some good, quick reads recommended by professionals:
Plain Talk About Spanking
by Jordan Riak,
The Sexual Dangers of Spanking Children
by Tom Johnson,
NO VITAL ORGANS THERE, So They Say
by Lesli Taylor M.D. and Adah Maurer Ph.D.
Most compelling of all reasons to abandon this worst of all bad habits is the fact that buttock-battering can be unintentional sexual abuse for some children. There is an abundance of educational resources, testimony, documentation, etc available on the subject that can easily be found by doing a little research with the recommended reads-visit www.nospank.net.
Just a handful of those helping to raise awareness of why child bottom-slapping isn't a good idea:
American Academy of Pediatrics,
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
Center For Effective Discipline,
Churches' Network For Non-Violence,
Nobel Peace Prize recipient Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
Parenting In Jesus' Footsteps,
Global Initiative To End All Corporal Punishment of Children,
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In 26 countries, child corporal punishment is prohibited by law (with more in process). In fact, the US was the only UN member that did not ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Reply
1-05-2010 @ 8:43PM
SKL said...Why do people say that, e.g., the "vast majority of professionals" are against spanking? The "vast majority of professionals" have not weighed in at all on the matter. The "vast majority of professionals" have not even been polled. The ones we hear about are the ones who have chosen to make a loud statement about it - and of those we've heard most loudly most recently, yeah, there are more anti-spanking than pro-spanking. But that doesn't prove anything.
Who decides to devote his/her career to studying the effects of spanking? People who are bleeding hearts to begin with, that's who. Ya think they could ever conduct an "unbiased" study and conclude that spanking is actually good? Ha! This is "modern science" we're talking about, folks.
My kids know what a spanking is, and so do I, and I have no regrets whatsoever. Lord help us all if they ever succeed in making spanking illegal in the USA.
But hey, if it makes you feel better, don't spank your brat. Let the neighborhood kids and prison inmates do it for you.
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1-06-2010 @ 12:21AM
phoenixmichaelson said...Published research, peer-reviewed literature, that sort of thing is what can be used to measure the vast majority of professional consensus.
Many people are professionally devoted to studying the lives of children, because it shapes society's future. As Augustine said "Give me different mothers and I will give you a different world". Its no trivial thing.
Studies have been done on prison populations too- almost all of them have been physically, sexually, or psychology abused in some way. The states with the highest incarceration rates, highest drop-out rates, and poorest test scores also have the highest incidence of child bottom-battering (in schools, etc) so child bottom-battering doesn't help with that.
Additionally, buttock-battering can vibrate the pudendal nerve, which can lead to sexual arousal. Frankly, with its risks, I'm not sure why anyone would choose child buttock-battering ("spanking', "swatting", "smacking", etc) over learning how to CORRECT and DISCIPLINE their child.
"Bleeding heart"? Sounds like someone suffers from delayed empathy development. Guess what that has been associated with?
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1-06-2010 @ 2:18AM
Michele W said...Sorry I believe that is what is wrong with kids today is that they can do what they want and they get a what?? A time out! I am not saying to beat your kid all day but when I was growing up if I did something I got it on my butt one crack with a wooden spoon. After that I knew when my grandmother or mom said to listen or get there before they counted to 3 my butt better be there because if not I got the wooden spoon. Never was hit hard enough to leave a mark or bruise but it hurt enough. Now on the other hand with my uncles they were huge and when they would get into fights my gram broke a couple wooden spoons on them and saw it didnt phase them so in her defense before they destroyed her house, she brought out the broom and beat the crap out of both. They were in thier teens at the time but once you got hit you knew better then to do it again. Now days you even say something to your kid and school has already pounded it into thier heads that you cant hit and if your mom or dad does call cys or the cops on them. I have heard kids say to thier mom while in stores, " go ahead i will just turn you in for child abuse." Then you got the people who butt thier nose into your business and make trouble for you. I was at the zoo one day and a mom with her teenage son or pretty close to it got yelled at and he said to his mom," your a bit$h, go f ( but the real word) yourself ! I aint doing that!" so the mom back handed him right in the mouth. I thought geez i would of done worse if my son talked to me like that. you never say the f word to your mom. Wel some lady who was like following us, ( you know how when you go places like the zoo there are people who are with you through out most of the day because you got there the same time) went and called the cops on this lady with her cell phone and grabbed the lady and told her she had to wait there for the police to come because she hit her kid !! now sorry wasnt her business, i could see if the lady was beating the crap out of her kid several times. Like several hits and wouldnt quit but just because she back handed him for what he said. come on now. She didnt even make him bleed. I stayed by just incase this lady who called the cops tried saying something that wasnt right and when the cops got there the mom told the cops what happened and what he had said to her and that she did back hand him but the cops could see his mouth wasnt bleeding but a little red and the cop said well mam I think you handled that pretty good then because boy would my kid be in trouble if he said that. The cops left and that was it. The kid needed to be hit to let him know hey you dont talk that way to me. What is a time out or grounding going to do when everything is in thier room so they dont care if they have to stay there. Take the tv away and they text on thier cells. There is always something else for them but you beat thier butt they will remember next time.
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1-06-2010 @ 10:40AM
Aprilcot26 said...I can count on one hand the number of times I was spanked as a child. One time specifically was for getting caught lying to my mom...that curbed it pretty quick. Guess what? It didn't scar me for life! At 27, I am happy, healthy, and successful. I don't resent or hate my parents...they live down the road, we work together every day and my mom is one of my best friends. It was understood in my house that spanking was a last resort. They didn't spank out of anger...it was DISCIPLINE. How many kids today have actual discipline? The most well-behaved kids I know have been spanked (not beaten) by their parents. My husband and I are expecting our first child, and we have both decided that spanking is not out of the question.
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1-06-2010 @ 2:28PM
phoenixmichaelson said...Why choose safeguarding such an unhealthy inherited bad habit? The truth is, its just easier to do than learning how to CORRECT and DISCIPLINE.
I don't see many advocates for adult buttock-battering. "Spanking" adult members of the community, military trainees, and prisoners used to be considered necessary. In some countries it still is. Singapore has a very low crime rate. In our country, adult buttock-battering is sexual assault, but only if you are 18 years of age.
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1-15-2010 @ 9:51AM
josey said...Spank children.
spank children.
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7-14-2010 @ 6:31PM
amr4vols said...I Believe it is up to each parent. You are not a bad parent if you spank. You are not a bad parent if you don't spank.
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8-21-2011 @ 10:41PM
Jay Sprague said...Singapore has a low crime rate simply because next to nothing is illegal in Singapore. Laws not in existence are statistcally less likely to be broken than laws that do exist.
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