Spanking children causes long-term permanent damage

My friend, Rake Morgan, has written for many years about the shameful practice in this and other countries of using physical discipline to “control” our children. To Rake’s thinking, all physical discipline is a form of abuse. I agree with him.

Now Rake has noted a new study published recently in the Journal of Child Development that shows that spanking young children causes long-term, permanent behavioral and psychological damage. Here’s Rake’s post:

For years I have been belaboring a point that some adults refuse to accept: any kind of physical discipline of children is a form of abuse. Worse, what starts out as “harmless” spanking escalates over time into serious emotional and physical injury to the child.

Now a new study of toddlers shows that even spanking kids at that early age can have long-lasting consequences.  According to CNN, the study from the Journal of Child Development shows –

Children who were spanked as 1-year-olds tended to behave more aggressively at age 2, and did not perform as well as other children on a test measuring thinking skills at age 3. . . . Spanking, moreover, reinforces negative memories in the child’s mind. Parents should aim instead to build “prominent, happy memories” of childhood for their kids.

The study also concludes that parents who spank are more likely to be younger, less educated, single, and/or depressed and stressed.

Susan Newman, social psychologist and author of “Little Things Long Remembered: Making Your Children Feel Special Every Day,” said parents should discourage bad behaviors by taking away privileges such as dessert, or setting an earlier bedtime. Newman believes that children are too young to understand when parenting behavior is wrong, even at the level of abuse.

Physical violence, Newman says, gets passed down in families because the only parenting skills people know are the behaviors that they saw at home. So, if you want your children to abuse their children, keep hitting them. Your grandchildren will thank you for it!

Here’s another post on the topic by Rake. It gives one of the best explanations I’ve read about the connection between physical discipline at child abuse: Are Your Kids Out of Control? Try Tying Them to a Tree!

One Response to “Spanking children causes long-term permanent damage”

1. Dell says:

   September 26, 2011 at 9:50 pm

   Spanking is one thing, beating is another. Never spank a child when you are angry. Discipline should be for correction not for getting YOUR anger out. This picture makes me sick. The parent that did this should be thrown in a dungon to never be remembered.