Agreed
that a verse of the Bible says, “Spare the rod and spoil the child”. And it
will be wrong to disobey instructions from above. However, the Holy Book does
not say you should use the rod to harm the child.
Many
parents, caregivers and guardians use the rod to harm children in an attempt to
‘discipline’ them. Such incidents bring up the moral and logical question on
the role of the rod in parenting.
Science may have
provided some insights and answers to the puzzle. After collecting and
evaluating the results of a 50-year-old study, researchers announced the
troubling and yet enlightening result of spanking in kids, either for
correctional or punitive purposes.
The study, published
in this month’s Journal of Family Psychology, reveals that the
more children are spanked, the more likely they are to defy their parents;
experience anti-social behaviour; express aggression, suffer mental health
problems and cognitive difficulties.
The scientists
evaluated the research which involved over 160,000 children across the globe.
The lead researcher
and associate professor of human development and family sciences at the
University of Texas at Austin, Elizabeth Gershoff, described the result as the
most accurate and evidence-based analysis that has showed the effects of
spanking alone in many years.
Gershoff says, “Our
analysis found that spanking was associated with unintended detrimental
outcomes and was not associated with more immediate or long-term compliance,
which are parents’ intended outcomes when they discipline their children.”
Scholar and co-author
Andrew Grogan-Kaylor links spanking with 13 of the17 negative outcomes in
children and adults.
“The upshot of the
study is that spanking increases the likelihood of a wide variety of undesired
outcomes in children. Spanking thus does the opposite of what parents usually
want it to do,” Grogan-Kaylor says.
Gershoff and
Grogan-Kaylor also tested for the long-term effect on adults who were spanked
as children.
The study reveals that
the more they were spanked in childhood, the more likely they were to exhibit
anti-social behaviour and experience mental health problems.
The analysis also
shows that adults who were spanked in their teens are more likely to support
physical punishment for their kids.
The scientists note that
one should worry on the import of this attitude towards physical punishment
being passed off as the norm through generations.
Both spanking and
physical abuse were associated with the same detrimental child outcomes in the
same direction.
“We as a society think
of spanking and physical abuse as distinct behaviours,” she says. “Yet our
research shows that spanking is linked with the same negative child outcomes as
abuse, just to a slightly lesser degree.”
Gershoff notes that
the study results are consistent with the report by the United States Center
for Disease Control and Prevention, which calls for a legislative
approach to reduce corporal punishment by categorising spanking as a form of
physical abuse.
She says,” We hope
that our study can help to educate parents about the potential harms of
spanking and prompt them to try positive and non-punitive forms of discipline.”
Yes, physicians say
that spanking is a physical abuse that has negative implications on the mental
health on the individual.
It is a global topic
whose relevance is widely debated. A 2014 United Nations Children’s Emergency
Fund states that as many as 80 per cent of parents around the world spank their
children.
Gershoff notes that
this persistence of spanking is in spite of the fact that there is no clear
evidence of its positive effects and ample evidence abound that it
poses a risk of harm to children’s behaviour and development.
For Consultant
Psychiatrist, Dr. Jude Onyeama, adults who were spanked as children are more
prone to settle disputes in their relationships with physical violence.
Onyeama says that some
of the patients become depressed and experience schizophrenic episodes when
they relieve physical punishments they experienced as kids.
He states, “We really
need to examine the effect of spanking on adults. Yes, you exhibit the
consequence of such physical abuse between your 20s and 50s. Are you
beating that child in anger? Some parents even get mental and physical relief
from beating their child. It is not that they want to correct him/her. They
want the child to do it again so they can even spank her more because they say
it. I hear, ‘If you do it again I will beat you a lot’ from adults. I have had
to recommend anger management for parents.
“They have the
problems, not the kids. There are over 50 ways to counsel or punish your kid
when he/she misbehaves. Get creative, not destructive. Let us mould and not
‘murder’ the self esteem of the next generation.”
“Nobody has the holy
grail on parenting. It is indeed one of the most difficult briefs that can be
given to any individual. But we surmount many challenges in our daily lives.
Why not look for other punitive measures to train your kids?
“We don’t want to be
the precursor for a violent generation. The world already has its unfair share
of dysfunctional adults. Let’s not add to the number.”
Source:
punchng
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