Agrowing body of research has shown that spanking and other forms of physical discipline can pose serious risks to children.
According to the new study, children whose parents use harsh physical punishment such as slapping or shoving may end up in relatively poorer physical health as adults.
Harsh punishment can be defined as being hit, slapped, pushed or grabbed at least sometimes but the findings do not prove that physical punishment, itself, affects kids’ long-term health.
The findings also revealed that physical punishment can harm kids. A number of studies have also linked such punishment, like spanking with problems such as aggressive behavior and poorer emotional well-being.The findings are based on 34,226 adults who took part in a health study. Just below 4 percent fit the definition of being harshly punished as kids.
Overall, their rate of obesity was higher, compared to adults who reported no harsh physical punishment: about 31 percent, versus 26 percent. They also had higher rates of arthritis (22.5 percent, versus 20 percent) and heart disease (9 percent, versus 7 percent).
The research team was able to account for some other factor, including family income and whether kids suffered more severe abuse, physical or otherwise. Harsh discipline was still linked to a 20 percent to 28 percent increased risk of the three adulthood health problems.
A child-abuse expert and Pediatrician based in Benin, Mrs. Loreta Okoruwa, explains : “Physical punishment is potentially harmful and in most cases does not stop a child from bad behavior. It turns out to affect the child negatively in the long run”.
Day in day out, researches are been done and the conclusion always shows that corporal punishment is not necessary, as it could have detrimental effects on a child’s future, she said.
She explained further that : “Physical punishment can cause aggression and other anti-social behaviour. Apart from that, it may also legitimize violence for children in relationships with other people because they tend to internalise the social relations they experience, that is the behaviour that parents are most likely to intend to prevent when they physically punish children is exactly the behaviour that they are likely to be strengthening”.
If parents try to modify their children’s behaviour through inflicting pain, then those children are likely to do the same to others when they want to influence other people’s actions, she said.
Mrs Becky Ndirang, a guardian counselor said that while kids need discipline, it shouldn’t involve physical force. Discipline helps to guide children’s moral, emotional and physical development, thereby enabling them to take responsibility for themselves when they are older.
She stated that discipline also involves teaching children what is acceptable and what is not acceptable, and it makes them aware of the values and actions that are acceptable in their family and society.
‘ This form of child training can be positive, for instance, praising the child for doing something good or for stopping doing something inappropriate. Discipline can be negative when it becomes physical such as smacking and hitting a child for doing something wrong’, she said.
Ndirang noted that even though the effect is less visible than externalizing behaviour, it is equally serious. The development of internalizing problems such as depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and other mental health concerns usually arise as a result of physical punishment. Such problems are often ignored and left untreated, and can have lifelong effects in adulthood, she said.
One issue, according to the research, is how harsh physical punishment was defined. It was based on one question: How often did a parent or other adults living in your home push, grab, shove, slap or hit you? The study did not ask specifically about spanking - the most common form of childhood physical punishment.
Only about 4 percent of adults said they had at least sometimes been subjected to those forms of discipline. On the other hand, 38 percent reported more-severe child maltreatment, including physical abuse that left kids bruised or injured.
A fewer adults would be expected to report severe maltreatment, versus harsh punishment. So that raises doubts about how the question was asked, and how respondents were interpreting it, according to study.
Since the study did not look at milder physical punishment, the findings cannot be used to condemn everything down to the occasional whack on the behind.
Another researcher , Christopher Ferguson, an associate professor of psychology who was not involved in the work said he did not find the results all that compelling.The study looked at seven adulthood health conditions, and found that harsh physical punishment was statistically linked to three of them.
And even then, the links were not strong in statistical terms, he noted. Ferguson said he is no advocate of spanking, but added, ‘I wouldn’t want parents who have spanked their kids to become alarmed by this’.
However, the author of the study agreed that parents should not feel alarmed or guilty. ‘We’re not trying to point the finger at parents,’ she said. But based on the body of research, parents should try to learn non-physical types of discipline, she added.
Why Physical Punishment (Hitting) is Bad
• Hitting Models Hitting
A child whose behavior is controlled by spanking is likely to carry on this mode of interaction into other relationships with siblings and peers, and eventually a spouse and offspring.
• Verbal And Emotional “Hitting”
Physical hitting is not the only way to cross the line into abuse. Everything we say about physical punishment pertains to emotional/verbal punishment as well.
• Hitting Devalues The Child
The child’s self-image begins with how he perceives that others – especially his parents – perceive him.
Even in the most loving homes, spanking gives a confusing message, especially to a child too young to understand the reason for the whack.
• Hitting Devalues The Parent
Parents who spank-control or otherwise abusively punish their children often feel devalued themselves because deep down they don’t feel right about their way of discipline.
• Hitting May Lead To Abuse
Punishment escalates. Once you begin punishing a child “a little bit,” where do you stop? Punishment sets the stage for child abuse. Parents who are programmed to punish set themselves up for punishing harder, mainly because they have not learned alternatives and click immediately into the punishment mode when their child misbehaves.
Source: www.askdrsears.com
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