Corporal punishment is defined as inflicting bodily pain on a child as a response to misbehavior, with the goal of immediately stopping the behavior and preventing a repetition of the behavior in the future. Some examples of corporal punishment are spanking, slapping and paddling. In most cases, corporal punishment is not regarded as abuse, unless the child is severely harmed. Those who oppose corporal punishment see it as ineffective and even cruel, with serious potential problems stemming from its use. Those who support it believe that it would be wrong for the government to take away a form of discipline that many parents use and support. Some parents continue to use corporal punishment as a method of discipline. In some states, schools may use corporal punishment.

One problem with corporal punishment is that in the process of inflicting corporal punishment, some parents become increasingly angry as they discipline the child, and corporal punishment may become physical abuse, as when harm beyond minor bruising occurs.

Countries that ban parental use of corporal punishment include Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Latvia and Norway. In the United States, no states ban corporal punishment by parents outright, although excessive corporal punishment is explicitly illegal in most states. In general, physical punishment that results in serious injury to the child beyond minor bruising is considered beyond the realm of corporal punishment.

Corporal punishment should never be used with infants because it could lead to Shaken Infant Syndrome or infanticide. Despite this risk, some inexperienced and young mothers use corporal punishment with their infants. It is never appropriate to spank a two-month-old baby for crying.

Many experts in childrearing are fervently opposed to corporal punishment. Murray Straus, in his chapter in Current Controversies about Family Violence, said children should never be spanked. Yet according to Straus, many parents rely on this form of discipline. In one of his studies, 94% of the parents said they used corporal punishment with their toddlers.

Straus said that some parents and even some experts (such as pediatricians), although they were opposed to corporal punishment in general, viewed it as a last resort solution when other methods of discipline appeared to have failed. However, Straus said studies have shown that all methods of discipline, including spanking, have a very high failure rate among toddlers and that about 80% of toddlers will repeat the same act for which they were earlier disciplined.

He contended that spanking is problematic for two reasons: It interferes with cognitive functioning, causing the child to experience such negative emotions as stress and fear. Second, small children who are spanked usually do not understand why they are being spanked, and they do not equate the spanking with throwing food on the floor or other behavior that has annoyed the parent.

Said Straus, "Spanking teaches a child to avoid misbehavior if a parent is watching, or will learn about it, rather than avoiding misbehavior because the parents have explained why some things are right and others wrong. When parents explain, children gradually understand and accept these standards, and they are likely to remain in effect in situations when no parent is present, and probably also for life." Even when the spanking is given by a loving parent, Straus said it is still a negative act and perceived as such by the child.

In an extensive meta-analysis of the association between parental corporal punishment and child behaviors, encompassing over 100 studies and described in a 2002 issue of Psychological Bulletin, researcher Gershoff found many negative effects of corporal punishment; for example, some studies found a correlation between harsh parental discipline and arrest rates of males from ages 17 to 45.

In addition, some studies showed a correlation between corporal punishment in childhood and later abuse of a spouse and children. Gershoff said several studies indicated that

A tendency toward intergenerational transmission of aggression in close relationship is evident in a strong tendency for parents who were corporally punished to continue the practice with their own children. Similarly, experience with both average (e.g., spanking) and extreme (e.g., kicking, biting, burning, and beating up) forms of corporal punishment by parents are associated with increases in an individual's likelihood of acting violently with an adult romantic partner.

Gershoff also noted some distinct problems with the overall studies. She found that the frequency and severity of corporal punishment among parents varied considerably, and some parents punished their children several times a week, while others punished far less frequently. Among some parents, a spanking was a slap across the child's buttocks, while for others, repeated slaps were used. Unfortunately, few of the studies that she analyzed (only about 5%) asked parents about both the frequency and severity of their corporal punishment, and most concentrated on frequency only. Some studies asked only if patients had ever used corporal punishment.

Another problem with research studies identified by Gershoff was that most researchers failed to recognize that corporal punishment is rarely used in isolation, and instead, in most cases, the punishment is combined with other forms of discipline, such as time-outs, withdrawal of privileges or other punitive techniques. In addition, some parents who use corporal punishment frequently also use verbal abuse, such as swearing at, insulting or threatening the child, which may magnify the effect of the corporal punishment.

Gershoff's meta-analysis of studies on corporal punishment also identified key characteristics of children who received corporal punishment. For example, most parents who used corporal punishment believed that this form of discipline was most appropriate for children under age five, with the exception of infants. The severity of corporal punishment also increased with the child's age; for example, slaps, pinches or hitting the child on the bottom with an object were more commonly used with children ages five to eight than for children either ages zero to four or nine to 17.

In considering the parental characteristics of those using corporal punishment, Gershoff's analysis of studies found that younger mothers were more likely to use corporal punishment; for example, in one study, more than 90% of the low-income adolescent mothers of toddlers said that they used corporal punishment. Some studies have found that mothers are more likely to rely upon corporal punishment than fathers. In addition, parents with aggressive and antisocial behaviors are more likely to use corporal punishment on their children. Some studies have shown that depressed parents are more likely to use corporal punishment on their children.

Gershoff identified other factors among the studies she analyzed. For example, a mitigating factor toward the use of corporal punishment was family size, and some studies showed that as family size increased, the use of corporal punishment also increased. In addition, parents in unhappy marriages appeared more likely to use corporal punishment than those in happy relationships. Some studies showed that single, separated or divorced parents were more likely to use corporal punishment. The part of the country where the family lived also apparently played a role in whether corporal punishment was used: corporal punishment was more likely to occur in families who lived in the south of the United States and least likely to be used in the northeast.

References:

1)         Gershoff, Elizabeth Thompson. "Corporal Punishment by Parents and Associated Child Behaviors and Experiences: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review." Psychological Bulletin 128, no. 4 (2002): 539-579.

2)         Straus, Murray A. "Children Should Never, Ever, Be Spanked No Matter What the Circumstances." In Current Controversies about Family Violence. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2004.

3)         Wolraich, Mark L., et al. "Guidance for Effective Discipline." Pediatrics 101, no. 4 (April 1998): 723-728.

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