Parents and Spanking: Knowledge Holds the Key to Alternative, more Positive Punishment

Unfortunately, some parents still chose to spank their parents as a form of punishment. However, previous studies have shown that spanking is linked to both short- and long- term child behavioral problems that can even translate into emotional or behavioral problems that surface later in life. 

Researchers discuss the issue of how to prevent parents from spanking who may be stuck in the past. The simple solution? Have them study up on the facts.

According to child psychologist George Holden, who favors a more humane alternative to child discipline, he found that parents who spank their children as a form of disciplinary control could change their minds when reading literature on the issue and the effects that may occur later in life.

Holden and colleagues at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, worked together to provide parents with this information. They carried out two studies through the experiment: one with non-parents and one with parents in which they found that attitudes were significantly altered when parents were more knowledgeable on the consequences of the punishment method.

"Parents spank with good intentions - they believe it will promote good behavior, and they don't intend to harm the child. But research increasingly indicates that spanking is actually a harmful practice," said Holden, the lead author on the study, via a press release. "These studies demonstrate that a brief exposure to research findings can reduce positive corporal punishment attitudes in parents and non-parents."

For the first study, 118 non-patient college students were divided into two groups: one that actively processed web-based information about spanking research; and one that passively read web summaries. They then read a summary that consisted of several sentences describing the link between spanking's short and long term behavioral issues for children. Results showed that 74.6 percent of those who read this information though of spanking less favorably after summarizing the information.

A second replication of the first study used 263 participants who were predominantly white mothers to try and be more resistant to changing their attitudes. However, even though statistics typically show that parents who are already set in their ways with disciplinary practices seldom changes, the results showed a different story. After reading brief research statements on the web, 46.7 percent of the parents changed their attitudes and expressed less approval of spanking.

"If we can educate people about this issue of corporal punishment, these studies show that we can in a very quick way begin changing attitudes," concludes Holden, via the release.

What do you think?

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the article "Research findings can change attitudes about corporal punishment," published in the international journal of Child Abuse & Neglect.