Study Suggests Punishment as a Child Might be Linked to Mental Disorders Later — How Do You Think Children Should be Disciplined?
Is physical punishment effective? When and how should physical punishment be used?
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A study by Canadian researchers suggests that physical punishment endured as a child may result in depression, anxiety and personality disorders later in life.
According to an article posted on TheStar.com, Canada's largest online news site, researchers estimated between 2 and 7 percent of those mental disorders might be due to punishments inflicted in childhood — punishment that does not including more severe forms of abuse and maltreatment.
The study team used data collected by United States Census interviewers in 2004 and 2005 in surveys of almost 35,000 adults across the country and found about 6 per cent of interview subjects had been punished beyond spanking “sometimes,” “fairly often” or “very often.” Those with a history of harsh physical punishment were more likely to have a range of mood and personality disorders or to abuse drugs and alcohol, the study suggests.
Up to half of all children may be spanked as punishment, according to researchers, but they wanted to look at what they deemed harsher punishments, such as shoving and hitting.
“People believe that as long as you don’t cross that line into child maltreatment, and the physical punishment is controlled and doesn’t cross the line into abuse, it won’t have any negative long-term consequences for the child,” said Tracie Afifi with the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, who lead the group of researchers. “The way we see it is along a continuum of having no violence to severe violence.”
According to the article, Afifi and her colleagues write in the journal "Pediatrics" that physical punishment may lead to chronic stress in children, which could then increase their chances of developing mental illnesses later in life.
Michele Knox, a psychiatrist who studies family and youth violence at the University of Toledo College of Medicine, agreed it's likely.
“Spanking and other forms of corporal punishment have a huge variety of negative outcomes, and almost no positive outcomes," she said, and those negative outcomes include aggressive behavior and delinquency in children.
While this study has less broad implications, as it estimates just 2 to 7 percent of mental disorders MIGHT BE due to punishment during childhood, what do you think about physical punishment overall? Is it effective? When and how should physical punishment be used? How do you think children should be disciplined? Tell us what you think in comments.
Sharon Swanepoel
1:38 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
I guess I'm still from the old school. I mean, if you don't discipline children how do you teach them right from wrong? In my family we all grew up very disciplined if we ever stepped out of line and there is no prozac in my medicine chest.
Diane
2:01 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Amen to that! Children need discipline and guidance and parents do not need to be their friend. It is obvious that too many children today have had zero discipline.
Marie
2:38 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Where in the study does it say never discipline a child? There are many forms of discipline. This strictly talks about physical discipline.
Deanna Allen
2:18 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
But the question is, what is effective discipline?
Deanna Allen
2:22 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
I, personally, hope to make effective use of the "naughty chair" should I ever have human children (I have furry kids now). I want to try to limit, if not exclude altogether, physical punishment, i.e. spanking. But I guess I won't know until that happens. I know all children are different and what works with one doesn't necessarily work with another. I would hope parents would be willing to give non-physical forms of discipline a try before moving to spanking. Wouldn't hurt to just try.
18andsafenow
3:06 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
In light of the Judge Adams video,
We often hear from those who fight to uphold this practice for those under the age of 18 (even to the blaming of the social maladies of the day on a supposed "lack" of it), but we rarely, if ever, find advocates for the return of corporal punishment to the general adult community, inmate population, military, or college campuses. Why is that?
Ask ten unyielding proponents of child/adolescent/teenage-only "spanking" about the "right" way to do it, and what would be abusive, indecent, or obscene, and you will get ten different answers.
These proponents should consider making their own video-recording of the "right way" to do it.
18andsafenow
3:07 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Children should have a right to their bodies, and the right to say "No!"
Currently in the U.S.:
When an adult does it to another adult, its sexual battery:
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/12/va-beach-restaurateur-pleads-guilty-sexual-battery
When children do it to adults, its a "deviant sexual prank":
http://www.theday.com/article/20101207/NWS04/101209750
When an adult does it to a person under the age of 18, its "good discipline".
Research/recommended reading:
Spanking Can Make Children More Aggressive Later
http://tulane.edu/news/releases/pr_03122010.cfm
Spanking Kids Increases Risk of Sexual Problems
http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2008/feb/lw28spanking.cfm
Use of Spanking for 3-Year-Old Children and Associated Intimate Partner Aggression or Violence
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/126/3/415
Spanking Children Can Lower IQ
http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2009/sept/lw25straus.cfm
Plain Talk About Spanking
by Jordan Riak
http://www.nospank.net/pt2010.pdf
The Sexual Dangers of Spanking Children
by Tom Johnson
http://nospank.net/sdsc2.pdf
"Spanking" can be intentional or unintentional sexual abuse
http://www.nospank.net/101.htm
Dave Ballard
8:44 am on Thursday, July 5, 2012
Yes, children should have a right to their bodies, but spanking et al. are pretty far down the list from medically unecessary abortion, and we still allow that.
Aaaaaaaaaaand... GO!
David
3:57 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
I am so depressed, anxious and ...OMG, could my disdain for liberals be a result of my parents spanking me?!!
Deanna Allen
4:53 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
When did politics become part of this?
David
5:08 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
In 1962.
R++ - One of the famous "Dacula Crew"
5:10 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Probably right about the time this came out ...
"Complain about the present and blame it on the past
I'd like to find your inner child and kick its little a#s"
"Get over it"
M.K. Osborne
6:30 pm on Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Yes may i have another ! ..... Yes may i have another ! ....... FORWARD 2012
Lynn Bacon, CPLC, CFC, CRC
7:32 am on Thursday, July 5, 2012
I cringe when I see studies like this. It is so much more than just spankings - kids all over the world have been spanked for thousands of years without being abused or needing anti-depressants when they grow up. It seems that over the past 20 - 30 years we've been trying to reinvent parenting by doing everything differently than what our parents did. But we're forgetting is to acknowledge and DO the things that that worked well - like having boundaries and a firm set of family values.
Kiri Walton
1:32 pm on Thursday, July 5, 2012
You need to discipline your children now so they're not a burden on society or "disciplined" by police or the Justice System later. Also, depression and anxiety are not mental disorders, but "mood disorders." But everyone gets depressed and anxious, so I wonder how exactly they say these are linked to discipline as a child.
Deanna Allen
1:40 pm on Thursday, July 5, 2012
You can read the full article here: http://www.thestar.com/living/health/article/1220328--hitting-slapping-tied-to-later-mental-disorders.