Should discipline hurt? Shifting American spanking beliefs and implications for school corporal punishment policies (original) (raw)
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Normative Support for Corporal Punishment: Attitudes, Correlates, and Implications
Aggression and Violent Behavior, 1996
Corporal punishment enjoys strong normative support in American society, even in the face of growing evidence suggesting that it may be potentially harmful. This article examines Americans' attitudes toward the physical punishment of children. Support for spanking varies along such social categories as race, education, religion, and region. The article concludes by discussing the implications of corporal punishment attitudes for scholars, professionals, and families.
Corporal Punishment: Current Rates from a National Survey
Journal of Child and Family Studies
Objectives To assess the prevalence of corporal punishment usage in the US population. Methods This study was based on a 2014 cross-sectional, telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of US households with children. Reports about spanking of 0-9 year olds were obtained from parents, while reports about 10-17 year olds were obtained from the youth themselves. Results The survey suggested that a majority of children in the US were not subject to corporal punishment in 2014. The rate was 49% in the past year for children ages 0-9, 23% for youth 10-17 and 37% overall. Rates of spanking were lower for girls compared to boys, Northeasterners compared to Southerners, and whites compared to blacks. They were also lower among those with a graduate education, and families with fewer than 3 children. The proportion of children subject to corporal punishment had declined by 2014 compared to other national surveys conducted in 1975 and 1985. This is in line with other studies showing declines of 26-40% in the spanking of kindergarden age children from 1988 to 2011. Conclusion The trends suggest a continuing reduction of spanking in the population. Because of growing research and advocacy about this practice both nationally and internationally, it may be that awareness is having some impact and it will continue to decline.
Journal of Family Violence, 1998
This study examined college students' attitudes toward spanking as a function of the situational context and age of the child. As expected, respondents were more likely to find spanking appropriate for preschool (ages 3–4) and early school age children (ages 7–8) than for older children (ages 11–12). Physical punishment was also viewed as more suitable when the child's misbehavior was disrespectful (talking back to a parent), or violated strongly held norms (hitting a playmate, stealing), and less appropriate for age-related or less serious misbehavior. Gender and race differences emerged, with males and blacks showing more support for corporal punishment than females and whites. In general, findings revealed strong support for spanking, although there was evidence of some ambivalence, especially among white and female respondents. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Religious Preference and Spanking Beliefs: Implications for School Corporal Punishment Policies
IARS'International Research Journal, 2013
American spanking beliefs were investigated by religious preference. Proportions agreeing with spanking were largest for Protestant (81%), followed by Catholic (69%). The association between Protestant and agreement with spanking (b=.718) was surprisingly strong considering associations with Catholic, Jewish, None, and Other were all inverse. The smaller Jewish proportion agreeing with spanking (51%) and the very strong inverse relationship between Jewish and agreement with spanking (b= -1.072) were unexpected. A separate analysis found large Christian (81%) and small Moslem (51%) proportions agreeing with spanking. Corporal punishment policies reflect American collective conscience on spanking. Deeper understandings of relationships between religious preference and spanking beliefs help stakeholders become aware of cultural undercurrents affecting school environments.
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2010
African-American and Anglo-American children's assessments of four disciplinary methods (spanking, reasoning, withdrawing privileges, and time-out) were investigated with 108 children ages 6-10 years old and one of their parents. Children watched videos depicting a child being disciplined and then rated each discipline method. Reasoning was rated as most fair, spanking as least fair. Spanking was regarded most effective for immediate compliance but not for long-term behavior change. Children with medium high levels of exposure to spanking were more likely to regard it as the best disciplinary technique compared with children with low or high exposure levels. Younger children rated spanking as fairer than older children. No differences were found between African-American and Anglo-American children's assessments after controlling for exposure to spanking and socioeconomic status. Implications about the role of children's assessments of discipline for internalization are discussed.
Commentary: Changing the Social Norm about Corporal Punishment
Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 2018
Evidence for the detrimental effects of corporal punishment (CP) on children has been borne out by more than 50 years of empirical research. However, in the United States, many parents continue to use and have favorable attitudes toward CP, reflecting an entrenched social norm. This commentary provides a review of the findings from two studies on how parents' perceptions of CP are influenced by social norms (Fleckman, Taylor, Theall, & Andrinopoulous, Child Adol Soc Work J.
Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: The Effects of Sex, Ethnicity, Military Culture, and Religion
2017
OF DISSERTATION ATTITUDES TOWARD CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: THE EFFECTS OF SEX, ETHNICITY, MILITARY CULTURE, AND RELIGION Nearly 19 out of every 20 parents with 3or 4-year-old children report spanking their child within the past year, and in schools spanking is a legal form of discipline in 19 states (nearly a quarter-million students received corporal punishment at school at least once during the 2006–2007 academic year). Although corporal punishment is a widely accepted form of child discipline in the United States, little is known about differences concerning attitudes toward the use of corporal punishment among subcultures within the United States. To address this gap, three studies were designed to examine attitudes toward corporal punishment in a few distinct subgroups that may show a propensity or aversion to spanking relative to the general public. Specifically, these studies were conducted using a panel of 420 active duty military personnel, a simple random sample of 1,357 underg...
Child Abuse Review, 2011
Population-based Trends for Three-to-11-year-old Children in the United States C orporal punishment is increasingly regarded as an act of violence against children. Corporal punishment includes any use of physical punishment against a child in response to misbehaviour. This most commonly includes spanking, smacking and slapping, but also includes the use of an object such as a rod or stick, hair pulling and ear twisting. A growing body of research has focused on discipline and the adverse effects of corporal punishment (Berlin et al., 2009; Lansford et al., 2009). The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child asserts that States take 'all appropriate legislative, administrative, social, and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence. . .' (UNICEF, 1989; Article 19, Center for Effective Discipline, 2009). The Committee on the Rights of the Child (2006), in General Comment Number 8, has further clarifi ed that: 'Addressing the widespread acceptance or tolerance of corporal punishment of children and eliminating it, in the family and in the schools and other settings, is not only an obligation of States parties under the Convention. It is also a key strategy for reducing and preventing all forms of violence in societies' (p. 3). The US and Somalia remain the only nations that have failed to ratify the Convention. Only 24 countries have passed laws to ban corporal punishment in the home. One hundred and twelve countries have banned corporal punishment in schools (Center for Effective Discipline, 2009). In the US, corporal punishment is legal in schools and pervasive in the home (Center for Effective Discipline, 2009; Theodore et al., 2005). Corporal punishment has been repeatedly associated with child abuse, moral internalisation, aggression, delinquent and antisocial
Corporal punishment is a controversial practice used by the majority of American parents and is especially prevalent among African Americans. Research regarding its consequences has produced mixed results although it is clear that there is a need for considering the context within which corporal punishment is administered. To assess the impact of spanking, we employed an expanded parenting typology that includes corporal punishment. Longitudinal self-report data from a sample of 683 African American youth (54 % female) were utilized to evaluate the relative impact of the resulting eight parenting styles on three outcomes: conduct problems, depressive symptoms, and school engagement. Results from Negative Binomial Regression Models indicate that the effect of corporal punishment depends upon the constellation of parenting behaviors within which it is embedded and upon the type of outcome being considered. While it is never the case that there is any added benefit of adding corporal punishment, it is also the case that using corporal punishment is not always associated with poor outcomes. Overall, however, our findings show that parenting styles that include corporal punishment do not produce outcomes as positive as those associated with authoritative parenting.
2009
There is a paucity of research on attitudes toward the corporal punishment of criminal offenders. This research study explored the attitudes of college students on corporal punishment. The authors found limited support for use of corporal punishment as a sanction for theft. There was greater acceptance for use of corporal punishment as a sanction for acts of violence. The authors conducted multivariate analyses to assess the influence of gender, race, age, educational level, and political affiliation variables on attitudes toward corporal punishment. Gender was the most powerful predictor of attitudes: men were more accepting of corporal punishment than women. After gender, political affiliation had the most influence. Republicans were more supportive of corporal punishment than Democrats. Race, age, and academic level had only limited influence on attitudes toward corporal punishment.