Doc’s Sunrise Rants

I think by now, anyone familiar with my site is also familiar with my opinion about spanking - the damage caused to the psych far outweighs any disciplinary benefit of striking a child. Spanking is an angry response by an adult on a defenseless child. As adults, we do not solve conflicts by striking each other - where is the line drawn when modeling behavior we want our children to emulate?

Spanking Raises Chances of Risky, Deviant Sexual Behavior
Review found physical punishment of kids linked to unprotected, masochistic sex as adults

Researchers have uncovered another damaging consequence of spanking: risky sexual behaviors, or even sexual deviancy, when the child grows up.”This adds one more harmful side effect to spanking,” said Murray Straus, a spanking expert who was expected to present the findings of four studies at the American Psychological Association’s Summit on Violence and Abuse in Relationships in Bethesda, Md., on Thursday.

Not one study, but four different studies that result in the same conclusion. Powerful evidence.

A meta-analysis of spanking studies conducted by Gershoff found 93 percent agreement among studies that spanking can lead to such problems as delinquent and anti-social behavior in childhood along with aggression, criminal and anti-social behavior and spousal or child abuse as an adult.

“There’s probably nothing else in child development that has 93 percent agreement in results,” Straus said.

Five percent of people who have never been spanked hit their partners, versus 25 percent of those who were spanked frequently.

However, some 90 percent of U.S. parents spank toddlers, according to Straus.

90% of parents are participating in an activity that 93% of researchers agree can cause psychological and physical damage to their children.

They found that spanking and other corporal punishment is associated with an increased probability of verbally and physically coercing a dating partner to have sex; risky sex such as premarital sex without using a condom; and masochistic sex such as spanking during sex.

There is a “dose response” at work here. “The more parents spank, the higher the probability of harmful side effects,” Straus noted.

Of course, there’s a similar dose response for smokers. But if someone reaches the age of 65 without developing lung cancer, it doesn’t mean that smoking isn’t harmful. It means the person was one of the lucky ones.

It’s the same with spanking, Straus said. “If a person says, ‘I was spanked, and I don’t have any interest in bondage and discipline sex, that’s correct, but it’s not because spanking is OK, it’s because they’re one of the lucky ones.”

Lucky they’re not beating their partners, lucky they’re not beating their own kids, lucky they’re not expressing inappropriate rage all the time, lucky they’re able to form reasonable relationships at all.

Parenting doesn’t come with a warning label, like a pack of cigarettes. You have to use common sense. Common sense dictates that hitting a child isn’t a good thing. Ever.

HT to CountryWife