Recently, awareness of the problem of corporal punishment of children has increased, and we rarely hear of corporal punishment being used at school or at home anymore.
There are many people who think that corporal punishment is absolutely wrong.
So should corporal punishment of any kind be avoided completely?
Or is it that only “emotional,” “inconsistent,” and “uncontrolled” corporal punishment has a negative impact on children, and that corporal punishment can also be educationally effective if used properly?
This debate has been going on for many years, but recently, a research team led by Robert E. Lazeraire of Oklahoma State University (OSU) in the United States provided one answer to the debate through a large-scale meta-analysis of 47 studies.
In their study, they pointed out that there is less than a 1% chance that moderate spanking as corporal punishment has a negative effect on a child’s development , and that the negative effects of spanking as corporal punishment may have been exaggerated in modern times .
However, this is not to endorse the uncontrolled use of corporal punishment or to downplay the negative effects of all corporal punishment.
So how should we view corporal punishment of children in light of these research results?
Attitudes towards corporal punishment have changed
The world’s view of corporal punishment is very different now than it was in the past.
For example, in the past in Japan, corporal punishment such as punches and slaps were commonly used at home and in schools as part of education .
However , in modern times, such ways of thinking and perspectives have changed dramatically, with corporal punishment being rejected and greater emphasis being placed on the dignity and rights of children.
A prime example that reflects this social climate is the comical scene in which the mother punches her son with her fist, which appeared in almost every episode of the animated series “Crayon Shin-chan” that began airing in 1992, but which is now much less common in current broadcasts.
In fact, this change in perception has led to more cases of parents using violence against their children, such as hitting or kicking, coming to light.
There has also been a lot of research on corporal punishment, and results have shown a strong correlation between corporal punishment and problem behavior in children.
However, these past studies often did not take into account existing problem behaviors that children had.
In other words, it was unclear whether corporal punishment itself increases children’s problem behavior or whether corporal punishment is inflicted more frequently on children who already have a lot of problem behavior .
Of course, corporal punishment that is “excessive,” “uncontrolled,” “administered according to the parent’s mood,” or “inconsistent” should not be condoned as being abusive.
However, is all corporal punishment of children “abuse” and “evil”?
There are many people who feel that way.
On the other hand, some people believe that “moderate corporal punishment” that is carried out in accordance with the rules and after a prior warning is not problematic.
These questions have been debated for years, but now Lazerer and his team have come up with an answer.
They conducted a large meta-analysis of 47 previous studies (12,727 participants) to examine whether corporal punishment has a negative impact on children’s development.
Types of Discipline
The methods of discipline that were addressed in this study include:
First, there is the ” time-out method ,” which is not corporal punishment .
This is a long-standing method of discipline in the United States where, when a child misbehaves, they are taken to a corner or another room, made to sit, and left alone for a short while .
If the time-out helps your child calm down, help them understand why the time-out was necessary and what they should have done.
Another form of discipline is spanking , a form of corporal punishment.
This method has also been used for many years in America as a form of discipline and is generally thought of as “spanking the buttocks one or several times. ”
The current study also focused on a more advanced form of spanking called ” back-up spanking .”
This is the ” spanking ” method for children who do not obey the time-out.
First, they try to address a child’s problem behavior with non-corporal discipline methods, and only if these don’t work do they resort to physical punishment (spanking).
So what were the results of these analyses?
Spanking has little negative effect on children’s development, study finds
Large-scale studies have found that there is less than a 1% chance that spanking has a negative effect on a child’s development .
For example, there was a 0.64% chance that spanking would lead to problem or aggressive behavior in a child.
It is said that children who are physically punished tend to become violent, engage in antisocial behavior such as breaking rules or stealing, and are more likely to get into trouble with their classmates, but there was little correlation when it came to spanking.
There is also a belief that being spanked can lead to low self-esteem and depression or anxiety disorders, but this study found little to no association, and the likelihood was even lower than the 0.64% mentioned above.
These results suggest that previous reports about the harmful effects of spanking on children may have been somewhat exaggerated .
The study also found that “back-up spanking” was more effective than leaving a child in a time-out for not complying .
Children who received back-up spankings were significantly more likely to comply with their parents’ instructions and cooperate with the time-out.
Additionally, the effectiveness of spanking, including back-up spanking, has been found to vary depending on the child’s age.
When children were young (between 2 and 6 years old), spanking was found to have a small positive effect, slightly reducing children’s problem behavior .
However, the positive effects of spanking diminish as children get older, and it has been found to have a somewhat negative effect, especially on children between the ages of 8 and 11.
Therefore, Lazerer concluded from this study:
” The most effective form of spanking is for children between the ages of 2 and 6 who do not comply with lighter discipline such as time-outs.
In this way, a rebellious child learns to comply with the less severe punishments, and spanking can be gradually phased out.”
This study showed that “discipline that includes spanking (corporal punishment) has little negative effect on children.”
However, this seems to contradict previous research and the voices of people who experienced traumatic childhoods.
Why does this difference occur?
The problem is not “corporal punishment itself” but “the abuse of corporal punishment”
Why are the results of this study different from those of previous studies on corporal punishment?
The reason for this, Lazerer explains, is that previous studies have not distinguished between effective and ineffective discipline .
In medical research, such as in the case of medicine, the dosage of a drug and the conditions under which it is most effective are consistently defined.
However, in research on discipline, such a definition has rarely been used.
This applies to parents who actually practice discipline and to those who debate its effectiveness.
Up until now, corporal punishment as a form of discipline has clearly been used in the wrong way.
In the name of “discipline,” there were times when my parents would get angry and slap or hit me.
Even spanking was not controlled, there were no clear rules, and it was carried out or increased in frequency depending on the mood of parents and teachers.
On this point, Lazerer also said:
” Clearly spanking was administered to a child in a misjudged manner and this may have had a detrimental effect on the child.
Spanking can have harmful effects on children when used too harshly, too frequently and as part of a chaotic parenting approach .”
Given the prevalence of uncontrolled corporal punishment throughout history, it is understandable that the idea of banning corporal punishment itself is spreading in modern times.
This study found that “corporal punishment, when properly controlled for age, method, and frequency, has little adverse effect on children and may even produce slightly positive results.”
History has shown that simply allowing parents and educators to use corporal punishment often leads to it being abused out of control, but banning it completely is also unlikely to lead to good results.
If the effects and impacts of corporal punishment are not properly understood, children’s problematic behavior will not be improved, innocent parents will be judged as abusers, and abuse will be excused as discipline.
The current research has shed light on these issues, posing new challenges and questions to us.