Spanking has historically been one of the most popular forms of disciplining children. According to University of New Hampshire sociologist Murray Straus, more than 90 percent of parents still spank their kids today. Recently, there has been a surge of studies comparing spanking to child abuse and vilification of parents who use physical punishments. Undoubtedly, child abuse is a very real problem, and millions of children around the world suffer from awful parenting that leaves physical and psychological scars that victims must wrestle with for the rest of their lives. However, although most of the outrage against spanking has been with the noblest of intentions, we must take a closer look at these studies before taking any drastic measures.
For example, a study published in Pediatrics magazine argued that harsh physical punishment is responsible for mood disorders, anxiety disorders, severe personality disorders and alcohol and drug abuse. Moreover, "approximately two percent to five percent" of these disorders were attributed to harsh physical punishments. Unfortunately, spanking is increasingly grouped alongside severe beatings and the other forms of childhood abuse. Most of these studies not only have small sample sizes, but also flawed methodologies. Variations in when the children were spanked, how frequently and how intensely are often ignored and simply lumped together with the most atrocious cases of childhood abuse to misleadingly argue that spanking in all cases is always bad.
Often ignored, unfortunately, are the many studies that disagree. According to The Los Angeles Times, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley studied families for twelve years, checking on the children at ages of four, nine and fourteen. They found that children show "no negative effects on cognitive, social or behavioral skills compared to children who were not spanked."
For decades, spanking was extremely popular, and because so many children have been spanked at least once, it has been difficult for researchers to find a control group. Thanks to a new project called "Portraits of American Life," however, this data has become available. In this group, nearly one fourth of the children have never been spanked. Marjorie Gunnoe, professor of developmental psychology at Calvin College, interviewed children every three years for two decades. Gunnoe did not find any evidence that kids who have never been spanked are better off in the long term. Not only did Gunnoe look for antisocial behavior, early sexual activity, physical violence and depression, she went further and looked into "academic rank, volunteer work, college aspirations, hope for the future and confidence in their ability to earn a living."
Even more importantly, most studies of corporal punishment "never look at good outcomes," and Gunnoe's work is one of the first studies to do so. In fact, she found that children who were spanked only at young ages roughly two to six years old were actually doing better on "almost every measure" as teenagers than those who had never been spanked.
Only the children who were still being spanked as teenagers were showing problems. Based on interviews conducted in downtown Grand Rapids by the local WZZM news team, a surprising number of teenagers look back on their childhoods and are grateful for the spankings they received. Many local teens reflected that they knew the parents did it out of love, and that they turned out better for it. Clearly, there is large variation in why, when and how often children are spanked, and studies that ignore these variations are misleading despite the best of intentions.
Naturally, there is a line when spanking becomes abuse, and all parties invested in protecting children, including the parents, must be watchful of this line. However, people like California assemblywoman Sally Lieber who lobby for outlawing spanking are also not helping. As a child who was spanked, I am grateful for it. There is no doubt in my mind that without the spankings I received, I would be worse off, but I also recognize that not all children need to be spanked. My brother, for example, was never spanked. Each child is different, and each child requires a different style of parenting. Equating my parents with abusers because of the light spankings I received as a toddler is ludicrous.
