Blogpost 4: Cultural Spanking

In most countries, Spanking is the main way on how parents discipline their children. Because of this, spanking became a culture in every family in world as a way of punishment. Now, let me state to you how spanking relates to culture.

"In many cultures, parents have historically been regarded as having the duty of disciplining their children, and the right to spank them when appropriate; however, attitudes in many countries changed in the 1950s and 60s following the publication by pediatrician Dr Spock of Baby and Child Care in 1946, which advised parents to treat children as individuals, whereas the previous conventional wisdom had been that child rearing should focus on building discipline, and that, e.g., babies should not be "spoiled" by picking them up when they cried. The change in attitude was followed by legislation. Since 1979, 30 countries around the world (at 2011) have outlawed domestic corporal punishment of children. In Europe, 22 countries have banned the practice. And in many other places the practice is considered controversial."

In some countries like Africa, Middle East, China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea spanking punishment in one’s own children is lawful. But in Singapore and Hongkong, spanking is legal but not properly encouraged in parents.


Most of the nations, spanking becomes the cultural way of punishment to children but there are opinions whether spanking is helpful or harmful to a child’s behavior. These children who are victims of spanking will have their own family in the future and if this kind of culture will continue, there are possibilities wherein they will implement this to their own kids someday. If this kind of culture will not stop, spanking will always be the main punishment to children and negative effects will grow into them.

Blogpost 3: Effects of Spanking

I just read a very interesting article about a new study that has provided even stronger evidence that between spanking and future aggressive behavior is causal, not just connected. In other words, this study is strong evidence that corporal punishment causes children to become more aggressive and misbehave more in the long run. The study controlled the variables that could also contribute to children having aggressive behavior to help make sure it was the spanking that was causing the aggressive behavior. Here's a few quotes from the article:

"The odds of a child being more aggressive at age 5 if he had been spanked more than twice in the month before the study began increased by 50%,". And because it is also accounted for varying levels of natural aggression in children, the researchers are confident that "it's not just that children who are more aggressive are more likely to be spanked."
Compared with children who were not hit, those who were spanked were more likely to be defiant, demand immediate satisfaction of their wants and needs, get frustrated easily, have temper tantrums and lash out physically against others."

Maybe the reason for that, is spanking replaces fear rather than understanding. Even if a child were to stop his screaming and crying when spanked, that doesn't mean he understands why he shouldn't be acting like that in the first place. What's more, spanking models aggressive behavior as a solution to problems.


\Why do you think parents still continue to use corporal punishment despite the fact that it is uneffective? I think it is the common mistake that parents gets easily angry that they forgot to remember that spanking do have negative effects on childrens. The spanking gets the kid to obey the orders of their paretns being given at the time of the spanking, but causes more behavior problems in the future.

It’s important to distinguish the difference between punishment and discipline. The goal of discipline should be to teach the child to behave in a proper manner. 
Spanking does not provide the child with any positive effect.

Blogpost 2: Ideas about Spanking

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.