The Correlation Between Corporal Punishment and Developmental Problems with Children

In this academic journal, Lian Tong (the corresponding author) who attended the School of Public Health at Fudan University in Shanghai, China effectively discusses the link between corporal punishment and developmental problems with children. It is documented that abusive discipline, family instability, lack of emotional support, and violence in the home contribute to symptoms of conduct disorder. Tong provides studies that show that children that are subjected to high levels of corporal punishment were associated with having problems in both emotional and behavioral adjustment. Mothers and fathers reported on each child's aggression by rating four items adapted from the Infant–Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment, “hits, bites, or kicks children and adults, ” “aggressive toward his/her mother or father, ” “throws or pushes things he/she does not want, ” and “behaves aggressively when frustrated. ” I will use this article in my research paper to provide evidence that the use of corporal punishment causes a host of negative cognitive effects on children.

Corporal punishment refers to the use of physical pain as a method of changing behavior. It includes several different means of punishment such as spanking, slapping, hitting, punching, pushing, pinching, shaking, choking, use of various objects (wooden paddles, belts, sticks, pins, or others), painful body postures (as placing in closed spaces), use of electric shock, use of excessive exercise drills, or prevention of urine or stool elimination. Corporal punishment in schools does not refer to the need of a the school’s faculty to restrain a student who exhibits dangerous behavior, or use physical force as a means of protecting those that attend the school either to learn or to teach The Society for Adolescent Medicine believes that the majority of the evidence leads to the conclusion that corporal punishment is not an effective form of discipline and has serious effects on the mental and physical health of who are subjected to it. Solid evidence that shows that corporal punishment leads to better control in the classroom does not currently exist. Punishing children by using physical force has never been shown to improve moral character development, increase the students’ respect for teachers or other authority figures in general, intensify the teacher’s control in class, or even protect the teacher. Such children, in our view, are being physically and mentally abused and no data exist demonstrating that such victims develop enhanced social skills or self-control skills. The use of this article in my research well provide more in depth data and studies that highlight the affect of physical punishment has on the psyche of children.

In the article, it was examined whether incidents of student problem behaviors are different between schools that used corporal punishment and schools that did not use corporal punishment. Fights and rebellion, which are the most common forms of student problem behaviors, were far more common in schools that administered corporal punishment as a form of discipline than their counterparts and the number of students who were involved in any type of offenses is also greater in schools that used corporal punishment than their counterparts. In one of the studies, rural schools that refrained from using corporal punishment had a higher percentage of students who are likely to go to college and a maintain a higher rate of attendance, whereas rural schools that allowed the use of used corporal punishment had a lower percentage of underperforming students and a higher percentage of students who considered academic achievement an important part in schools. Studies in that past showed that intensive discipline policies (including corporal punishment) foster a negative learning environment which has an adverse effect on students. In this study, schools that did not use corporal punishment had positive aspects, such as having fewer underperforming students and more students who valued school learning. I will use this article to show the affects that school that administer corporal punishment and schools that don’t, have on children.

Environmental and Parental factors heavily influence the long-term effects that any disciplinary action, including spankings. Baumrind conducted a several yearlong prospective study of families with children ages 4-9 years. She identified three parenting styles and evaluated the effects these styles had upon the children’s development. The following parenting styles were identified: Authoritarian Parents exhibited more control over their children, they were far more restrictive, less willing to explain, and less warm and comforting. Permissive Parents are less controlling, aren’t as demanding, and uninvolved with the child. Authoritative Parents employed not only a positive setting for their children to express themselves and be independent, but also firm control.

Larzelere and Kuhn’s 2005 meta-analysis of a quarter-century of literature compared physical punishment of children with the use of different styles of corrective discipline measures, such as time-out, reasoning, privilege removal, and scolding. In order to not generalize and group all forms of physical punishment, Larzelere and Kuhn distinguished the following four categories: conditional spanking (used under specific, limited conditions), customary physical punishment, unecessarily severe physical punishment, and predominant physical punishment. The studies show that conditional spanking was associated with better child outcomes than were 10 of 13 alternative disciplinary tactics that yielded no differences in outcomes compared to the other alternatives.