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A new study of 2,500 white, Mexican American and black children from low-income families suggests that early spankings make for aggressive toddlers. According to the study, which is published in the journal Child Development, "Children who are spanked as 1-year-olds are more likely to behave aggressively and perform worse on cognitive tests as toddlers than children who are spared the punishment, new research shows."
"Age 1 is a key time for establishing the quality of the parenting and the relationship between parent and the child," said study author Lisa J. Berlin, a research scientist at the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University. "Spanking at age 1 reflects a negative dynamic, and increases children's aggression at age 2."
"The study also found that mothers who said their children were 'fussy' babies were more likely to spank them at ages 1, 2 and 3. But children who were more aggressive at 2 were not more likely to get spanked.
'The implication or the suggestion in past arguments is that some kids who are more aggressive or difficult to control might elicit more spanking, but that's not what we found,' Berlin said."
The average number of spankings for 1-year-olds in this study was 2.6 per week.
I am by no means a perfect parent (if such a thing even exists) and I've definitely felt the urge to spank my kids on occasion. I've raised my voice and not always parented the way I planned to but I cannot imagine a situation where I'd ever conceive spanking a 1-year-old - especially more than twice per week on average!
Alma from Always on the Verge asks:
Why are we spanking one year olds? My next question is, why are we spanking one year olds almost 3 times a week? What are they doing that deserves physical punishment?
I wish they would have told us that in the article because I cannot for the life of me understand what a one year old does that requires physical punishment. This goes back to something that I preach a great deal about.
Forcing unrealistic expectations on children.
I have heard reasons as to why people spank their young children and they range from not wanting to eat, not wanting to sit in a carseat for extended periods of time, and not wanting to go to sleep when the parents want them to. All of these common reasons are things that children should not be really expected to do…. but our society has said that they are. What needs to change here? The kids or the expectations?
Alma also notes that this is certainly not the first time a study has showed the negative effects spanking has on a child. CNN posted Spanking Kids Leads to Long-Term Bad Behavior more than 10 years ago.
On the Attachment Parenting Blog API Speaks, Sarah wrote about the one and only time her now 7-year-old son was spanked (back when he was 18 months old and by the hand of her mother-in-law) in her post His Only Spank.
Carina spanked her 3.5 yr old son after he made a colossal mess of her living room (don't believe me? check this out) and said in the comments:
I have mixed feelings about the spanking (don't we all?). I have tried a lot of alternate disciplinary tactics. Today was the first day that we did a bare-bum and open hand spanking. The good thing is that I was not angry, it was not a release, it was done calmly. Afterwards I made him sit on my lap and talk about it. I probably wouldn't have done it, except that he poured out most of the chocolate syrup on the carpet yesterday, after which he lost TV privileges and had a long time out. With the escalation today, I felt like we needed to step up the discipline.
Carina also told me, "It's rare that we use it [spanking] as a discipline (hate using it when there is any other alternative). We'd tried everything else and nothing else was working. I think I come down on the side of 'if it's rare and appropriate.'"
LilSugar wrote Did Your View on Spanking Change Once You Became a Mom? and confesses that her's did.
I was adamant that I would use spanking as a method of punishment in our home... before I became a mother. When it came time for me to teach my daughter right from wrong, I popped her tush a couple of times and found it completely ineffective. She
