Spanking Batters Kids' Mental Health: Study
Thirty-two countries prohibit physical punishment of children by parents or caregivers, but the practice is legal in the United States and Canada... yet nearly 80 percent of preschool children in the United States are spanked.
MSN reports that a study shows spanking increases odd children will develop mental health issues as adults. Below we highlight some of the article. Please click here to see entire article and let us know if you could work for parents that spank their kids?
Spanking or slapping your children may increase the odds that they will develop mental health issues that plague them in adulthood, a new study suggests.
"We're not talking about just a tap on the bum," said study author Tracie Afifi, an assistant professor in the department of community health sciences at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg. "We were looking at people who used physical punishment as a regular means to discipline their children."
Corporal punishment was associated with increased odds of anxiety and mood disorders, including major depression, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, agoraphobia and social phobia. Several personality disorders and alcohol and drug abuse were also linked to physical punishment, the researchers found.
While the study finds an association between physical punishment and mental illness, it does not prove that one causes the other.
Previous studies have linked physical punishment to aggression in children, delinquency and emotional, developmental and behavioral impairment. But this study examined its effects on mental health in the absence of more severe physical abuse, sexual abuse or other forms of neglect and mistreatment.
Thirty-two countries prohibit physical punishment of children by parents or caregivers, but the practice is legal in the United States and Canada, according to background information in the study. The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommends against the use of physical punishment as a form of child discipline.
Nevertheless, the researchers say a survey of U.S. adults showed that 48 percent of respondents reported a history of harsh physical punishment without more severe abuse. A 2010 University of North Carolina study revealed that nearly 80 percent of preschool children in the United States are spanked.
Click here to read entire article.
No. It's one of the questions I ask in an interview, and it's a dealbreaker. I once found myself babysitting for a family who spanked, and for particularly inappropriate reasons at that, and I couldn't handle it. It's a sign that people haven't considered their parenting choices or done fair research either.
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