It states clearly that children who are spanked, hit or pushed have an increased risk of mental problems when they grow older. The research seems to show that the effect can range from mood and anxiety disorders to drug and alcohol abuse.
The aim was not to look at more aggressive physical or sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, but rather to identify the link between light deliberate punishment and Axis I and II mental disorders.
Axis I is defined as clinical disorders, including major mental disorders, learning disorders and substance use disorders, while Axis II relates to: personality disorders and intellectual disabilities.
When light spanking is used appropriately, rather than wantonly and where it only servers to back up non physical discipline, such as talking sternly to the child or enacting some kind of punishment or removal of privileges, it does, in fact, prove very effective at removing non-compliant behavior.
This would probably concur with the ideals of many mentally balanced and well educated parents, who would do anything to avoid having to get physical with their children, but ultimately, in the appropriate moment, with the correct words and mood, find that spanking can be useful and not cause long term detriment.
Those actions; pushing, hitting, grabbing, shoving, slapping or hitting anywhere on the body besides the buttocks, do not have anything to do with spanking a child.
In summary, spanking a child is NOT the same as physically abusing a child. Physical abuse is committed in the absence of love and compassion, while light spanking, when done as a last resort punishment, is always done by loving, compassionate parents who emphasize that they love their children by taking serious measures to ensure that their children do not engage in self-destructive behaviors or wrong behaviors towards other people. That is why I think spanking by anyone else than parents or other close family is wrong, and that sort should be illegal.
Spanking by parents and other close family members responsible for the care of the child should be encouraged only as a last resort when disciplining a child.
Spanking erodes developmental growth in children and decreases a child's IQ, spanking may reduce the brain's grey matter, the connective tissue between brain cells. Grey matter is an integral part of the central nervous system and influences intelligence testing and learning abilities. It includes areas of the brain involved in sensory perception, speech, muscular control, emotions and memory. Additional research supports the hypothesis that children and adolescents subjected to child abuse and neglect have less grey matter than children who have not been ill-treated.
Medical professionals investigating the long-term effects of spanking have consistently found a link between corporal punishment and increased aggression in children. Such "educational" discipline correlates to higher levels of acting out in school and trouble in academic performance. It predicts vulnerability to depression, typically in girls, and antisocial tendencies usually manifest in boys.
Boys are spanked more than girls. Physical punishment most frequently occurs at the toddler or preschooler age. Parents of lower income and with less formal education spank more often. Spanking gets quick results, but it doesn't reduce the undesired behavior. In addition to detrimental physiological effects, it may also inflict lasting emotional damage that inhibits the learning process. Physical punishment undermines trust between parent and child and breeds hostility toward authority figures. Being hit may subsequently hinder social relations in the classroom where there is a power differential between teacher and child. It is any wonder when hitting sends the signal to a child that learning occurs through punishment? This form of discipline pretends to be educational, but is actually a way for parents to vent their own anger. Spanking involves the learned misrecognition of injury as education. Figures of cultural authority, such as parents and teachers, may be construed as purveyors of sadism rather than knowledge. Corporal punishment undermines compassion for others, for one, and limits the mutual capacity for gaining insight. The effective teaching of discipline may have the potential to lessen the overall levels of violence in our society. In other words, corporal punishment, of which spanking is a relatively minor form, can have larger social implications. Some studies suggest a connection between the physical punishment of children and the behavior involved in some criminal assaults.
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