Educated Parenting

What Is Corporal Punishment and Should It Ever Be Used In Raising Children?

The corporal or physical punishment of children refers to a wide range of actions intended to cause physical pain.  These include such acts as:

pinching,

shaking,

slapping,

punching, and

with or without the use of objects like belts, cords or brushes,

spanking,

hitting, and

beating children.

Each act can be mild or severe, depending on its force and duration.

All such acts constitute violence directed toward children because violence is defined as an "act carried out with the intention of causing physical pain or injury to another person" (Straus, M., Beating the Devil Out of Them: Corporal Punishment in American Families and Its Effects on Children).

Before answering whether these forms of violence should ever be used in raising children, let's look at how many parents are already using them and with which age children.

National surveys show that with 4 and 5 year olds, over 90 percent of parents from all backgrounds and cultural groups admit using one or more forms of corporal punishment, and this percent has remained the same for the last twenty years.

The percentage of parents of school-age children who admit to using corporal punishment hovers around 60 percent and this represents a large reduction from ten years ago.  So the use of corporal punishment with these children looks like it is on the decline.  With infants and toddlers, about 35 percent of parents indicate using corporal punishment.

In terms of whether any parent should use these forms of violence, the answer is

Making Parenting Easier

Some more great news from the research front about the benefits of establishing warm and mutually satisfying relations between children and parents early in life.

Such relationships are characterized by parents and their young children being very affectionate and warm with each other, and communicating a lot with each other.

A recent long term study shows that these mutually satisfying relations early in life predispose children to be more self-disclosing to their parents later in childhood regarding their friends, behavior and activities.

This type of self-disclosure makes it easier for parents to keep track of their children's whereabouts.  Effective tracking and monitoring of children's behavior in later childhood reduces the risk of behavior problems like aggression and delinquency, drug abuse, early and risky sexual activity, and poor academic performance.

The study, which appeared in the September/October 2005 issue of the prestigious research journal, Child Development, also showed

Positive Parenting Buffers Impact of Observing Violence

In some urban neighborhoods, teenagers witness an alarming amount of violence, including watching someone being attacked, wounded or killed. Studies find that witnessing such events can increase the likelihood that teens will engage in violent behavior themselves, thereby continuing "the cycle of violence" in their communities.

However, as researchers from Georgia State and Yale universities report in the July/August 2005 issue of the Journal Child Development, parental involvement and social understanding (the tendency to think about social interactions in a non-hostile way), can protect teenagers from violent behavior, even if they witness violence. These teenagers are referred to as resilient because they succeed in avoiding violent behavior despite living in a dangerous neighborhood.

The researchers gave 1,599 sixth and eighth graders in a large northeastern urban public school system serving mostly low-income and minority families the Social and Health Assessment (SAHA) survey. This survey measures parent support through teenagers' feelings about their parents' involvement and supervision, and social understanding by asking teens to react to hypothetical social scenarios. Overall, the researchers found:

Effectively Raised Women Make Great Mothers

An international consortium of researchers recently reported that girls raised in a positive, nurturing environment throughout their childhood are much more likely to raise their children in the same way.

The lead researcher, Dr. Jay Belsky, Director of the Institute for the Study of Children Families and Social Issues at Berkbeck University of London, said that the findings show that “it is not just problematic parenting, known to undermine a child’s well being, that can be handed down across generations, but also the kind of parenting known to foster healthy child development.”

Parental Warmth -- Pivotal To Raising Healthy Children

Parental warmth continues to be shown in research study after research study to be a primary ingredient of effective parenting.  That is why I have included Parental Warmth, Acceptance and Respect as the first guideline in my Power of Positive Parenting guidelines book.

Parental warmth is conveyed through hugs, kisses, praise, encouragement, terms of endearment, and by telling children they are loved.

Warmth in the parent-child relationship is related to numerous positive outcomes in children:

Involved Parents Help Teens Achieve

Higher levels of academic achievement are highly affected by the type of parenting one receives during adolescence, a recent study found. Past research had indicated that the role parental guidance plays isn’t as significant in adolescence as in the early years. In the 2004 study, researchers hoped to determine the role parenting plays on the development of children’s talents, abilities, and competencies during adolescence. In addition, they measured the affect of parental involvement on behavioral problems, academic achievement, and the development of life objectives in children.

Methods

The researchers recruited 460 African American and White children enrolled in the seventh through eleventh grades.

They measured parental involvement at school by conferencing with adolescents, teachers, and by visiting schools. Later in the subjects’ school careers, scientists measured behavior at school, academic achievement, and life objectives.

Results