Calling it he “most complete analysis to date of the outcomes associated with spanking,” researchers are saying their new study shows children punished by spanking are more likely to experience negative consequences and antisocial behavior.
The study, published in the April edition of the Journal of Family Psychology and cited in usnews.com, analyzed data from 50 years of research involving more than 160,000 children to drew their conclusions. The researchers say earlier studies on the subject focused on the more broad aspects of all types of physical punishment, white the new research is limited to spanking alone.
The team, made up of experts from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan, defined spanking as an open-handed hit on the child’s behind or their extremities.
The findings show that children that were spanked by their parents or guardians were more likely to experience aggression and antisocial behavior later in life, and it also revealed the greater the frequency of such punishment, the more likely they were to experience such undesirable behavior.
The study authors say the analysis indicates spanking and physical abuse were associated with the same types of negative outcomes as the children become older.
Co-author of the study, Andrew Grogan-Kaylor, who is an associate professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan, said the takeaway from the research was that spanking children led to an increase in the likelihood of undesired outcomes for them. He added spanking did the opposite of what parents want to achieve with that form of punishment.
According to the release from UT announcing the findings, a report from UNICEF in 2014 says as many as 80 percent of parents around the world use spanking as a punishment for their children. Elizabeth Gershoff, associate professor of human development and family sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, said this persistence of spanking continues in spite of the fact there is no clear evidence the punishment has any positive effects, and there is ample evidence that it poses a risk to the children’s behavior and development.
“We as a society think of spanking and physical abuse as distinct behaviors,” adds Gershoff. “Yet our research shows that spanking is linked with the same negative child outcomes as abuse, just to a slightly lesser degree.”