Is Spanking Children immoral to you?

[Reverend Rick]

According to the best available science on the subject, spanking your kids can result in their adopting behaviors that will handicap them later on in life. For instance, people who were spanked as children grow up to earn less than people who were never spanked as children.

Do me and my relatives a favor -- be so stupid as to spank your kids. Spanking will make them less able to compete for the big bucks than my nephews. So spank away. I'll thank you, and my nephews will thank you.

I guess we will just see if my kids make more money in their life time than I did.

I got the crap beat out of me when I was a child, it did not seem to affect my wage earning abilities unless you are saying I could have been a billionaire.

 

[Sunstone]

I guess we will just see if my kids make more money in their life time than I did.

I got the crap beat out of me when I was a child, it did not seem to affect my wage earning abilities unless you are saying I could have been a billionaire.

Has getting the crap beat out of you as a kid affected your ability to understand statistically reasoning? I doubt it. One counter-example does not invalidate a thousand other examples.

 

[Mister Emu]

For instance, people who were spanked as children grow up to earn less than people who were never spanked as children

Do you know the name of the study? correlation is not causation.

 

[Sunstone]

Do you know the name of the study? correlation is not causation.

Of course correlation is not causation. But correlation is evidence for causation. Maybe not in itself sufficient evidence, but evidence nevertheless.

I'll look up the studies (plural) later on today or tomorrow when I have time.

 

[Jinse]

That is quite a common form of discipline in some parts of Asia. Including my country. We do not see it as completely immoral or otherwise. There are certain limits.

 

[Engyo]

If a kid misbehaves do you believe it's okay to spank them?

Reminisce I say spank not shoot Seems like quite a few got that confused when I asked that on yahoo answers.

It's OK, it's just not very efficient at modifying behavior.

 

[Immersion]

According to the best available science on the subject, spanking your kids can result in their adopting behaviors that will handicap them later on in life. For instance, people who were spanked as children grow up to earn less than people who were never spanked as children.

Source? I don't have a problem with spanking. It is a form of discipline. I have a problem with abuse (of any kind) because that isnt discipline and is quite harmful. Growing up I was spanked as a child and I turned out fine.

If your kid mouths off to you, it's one thing to spank him. It's another thing to break your kid's nose or extinguish cigarettes on your kid's buttocks and lower back. That is clearly abuse. People treat spanking and other physical forms of discipline as abuse and that is too bad. They are two different things.

 

[waitasec]

spanking is a form of insecurity one has in regards to the influence they have on their kids...
the power of ultimatums works for me...another form of insecurity

 

[Immersion]

spanking is a form of insecurity one has in regards to the influence they have on their kids...
the power of ultimatums works for me...another form of insecurity

Only if the parent uses it exclusively. Spanking should NOT be the first resort to correcting behaviors.

 

[Badran]

Growing up I was spanked as a child and I turned out fine.

He said can.

"spanking your kids can result in their adopting behaviors that will handicap them later on in life"

Which means it doesn't necessarily happen every time. Personally i don't think its a disaster, but i do think it can cause problems in some cases (i have no sources to back my opinion up though, its just my personal observation).

 

[Sunstone]

There are several sources of scientific information on spanking listed on this website (near the end), for those looking for more information on the subject.

 

[waitasec]

Only if the parent uses it exclusively. Spanking should NOT be the first resort to correcting behaviors.

if it were, i would be in a long line with those who'd say, 'you're not a parent...you're a bully'.

 

[Sunstone]

Source? I don't have a problem with spanking. It is a form of discipline. I have a problem with abuse (of any kind) because that isnt discipline and is quite harmful. Growing up I was spanked as a child and I turned out fine.

If your kid mouths off to you, it's one thing to spank him. It's another thing to break your kid's nose or extinguish cigarettes on your kid's buttocks and lower back. That is clearly abuse. People treat spanking and other physical forms of discipline as abuse and that is too bad. They are two different things.

You call them two different things. But what if there is little difference between them in outcome?

 

[Vinayaka]

Besides the cruelty factor, it just doesn't work. A good link ... http://www.positivediscipline.com/

 

[Quintessence]

Here's another one that folks might want to look at. There's a link in there to a peer-reviewed meta analysis of studies done on corporal punishment of children and how it is a massive FAIL.

Here is another from the University of Minnesota that provides a simper, bullet-point summary of the issue for those of us who can't be bothered to read lengthy articles. =P

 

[doppelganger]

Pragmatically, it is not generally a wise course.

Primer on operant conditioning (the ostensible purpose of spanking):

How Does Operant Conditioning Work? - General Psychology

Physical punishments are likely to have very unpredictable effects on a young child's psychology that can lead to social dysfunction and unintended or unforseen difficulties for the child going forward processing stimuli in social reality.

The research so far tends to support the conclusion that well-tailored rewards (especially with young children, 8 and under) are not only more effective, but less potentially harmful -especially when applied by parents who are not trained to recognize the function of a behavior.

From 12 years onward you learn differently | e! Science News

(Younger children are more likely to misunderstand or incorrectly process punishments than they are rewards, and this changes with age.)

Kids Who Get Spanked May Have Lower IQs

(spanking may contribute to lower intelligence)

My own hypothesis is that social reality and its rules for acceptable behavior are very complex and for a healthy functioning adult, must be acquired with some significant amount of nuance and a broader picture of how consequences play out in these socially complicated arrangements that make up most of life for a human operating in social reality. Spanking works on a different instinctual level that reinforces an un-nuanced understanding of cause-effect and social consequence.

It probably isn't prudent unless you live in relative isolation from the rest of society.

 

[Immersion]

You call them two different things. But what if there is little difference between them in outcome?

So you consider physical discipline and abuse to be the same?

 

[Sunstone]

So you consider physical discipline and abuse to be the same?

I didn't say that. I asked if the outcomes are the same, how do you propose to distinguish between them?

 

[doppelganger]

So you consider physical discipline and abuse to be the same?

When it damages the child's ability to process and function feeling and behaviors - or when it's done by someone negligently without consideration for whether it will damage the child, or when it's done for the punisher's own psychological purposes unrelated to the child's well-being (which is almost every time it is used) - then yes, that's fairly characterized as "child abuse," or "neglect," at best.

 

[sandandfoam]

Of course there are exceptions but it seems to me that the majority of parents who spank spank because they're at the end of their tether, frustration sets in and they give their child a clatter. I can understand that even though I don't think it is appropriate.
I think anyone who calmly decided to give their child a clatter is nuts. I love you so much I beat the crap out of you is not a wholesome way to engage with ones family.