Spanking Children Research Paper
Does Spanking Children Create Mental or Emotional Problems with Development in Adulthood?
Billie J. Hensley
Saint Leo University
Abstract
Children who are spanked grow into adulthood with mental and emotional disorders that affect them and those surrounding them for life. Childhood experiences are thought to influence the development of mental health problems later in life. Whether people agree or disagree on spanking research findings from past years, they show at least nine reasons that physical punishment should not be used on children with corporal punishment. The purpose of this paper is to gather information from already completed research to help add a new level of understanding. Many variables play a role in why …show more content…
parents use spanking for punishment such as ethnicity, social class, income, and society. It is predicted that the youth who receives physical punishment shows more aggression and develops mental disorders in adulthood.
keywords: spanking, child development, behavioral development, cognitive development
Does Spanking Children Create Mental or Emotional Problems with Development in Adulthood?
Mental health has to do with a complex interactive association with a person’s physical health and ability to prosper in society; both physical and mental health affect how people think, feel and act. Overall, this is an essential part of children's health (Childhelp, n.d.).
Child neglects definition as abuse in relation to failure to provide appropriate care, food, clothes, and housing. Neglect is not physical abuse it is more than one incident situation. It is designate by a pattern of improper care and observed by a person who has had close contact with the child. Neglect is usually noticed by poor hygiene, inadequate weight gain, improper medical care, etc. There have been four types of neglect classified educational, mental, emotional, and physical (Childhelp, 2011).
Child abuse occurs is when a caretaker inflicts physical harm to a child while in their care on purpose. There are many forms of child abuse, such as physical abuse, fetal abuse, emotional abuse, and spiritual abuse (Childhelp, …show more content…
2011).
Physical means of punishment were not always seen as abuse when parenting, due to society’s approval on means of punishment. The study shows spanking as a punishment to children, and other forms of physical discipline have profound effects on a child’s mental, behavior, and physical attributes. The mental disorder it creates includes, but is not limited to, adult anxiety, depression, and aggression. Also, drugs and alcohol dependence has been recorded problem for adults who were spanked as a child. Child abuse has not always been known as abuse due to societies using a harsh punishment to teach children how to become productive adult citizens (Smith, 2012).
Acts Against Child Abuse
The legislature passed an act in the year of 1975 to protect children from enduring harsh unnecessary punishments or neglect. An act was passed on child abuse that requires any person to report child abuse and neglect. The act helps to be responsible for the safety of children who are battered or mistreated. This action helped the authorities to create an area of social services to prohibit child abuse and neglect. This area of social services helps make it the obligations of law organization’s responsibility to defend and enhance the welfare of youngsters and sanctuary family life. This act became a law known as “child protection law” (Office for the Protection of Children and Youth, n.d.).
Before the new laws went into effect, the phrase child abuse’ was uncommon to hear but was too common to see. Children who are spanked are often abused regularly, once hit the caretaker gets harsher as time goes. This is due to the reactions of the parents; one swat was fine, then in time the more stress the worse the hitting and swatting to the child. The children who had been spanked were more likely to be insubordinate, demand immediate gratification of their wants and needs, become more exasperated easier, have anger outbursts, and have physical outburst against other people or mistreat animals. Thus, may-be that spanking sets up a continuous motion of misbehaviors. Corporal punishment implants fear rather than information. Even if children stop tantrums when spanked, that does not mean they get why they should not have been acting out in the misbehaving manner in the first place. In addition, spanking sets a bad example, training children that aggressive behavior is a resolution to their parents' complications. People noticed more children receiving injuries, and this was not a simple child-rearing situation anymore. This set the child protection laws into motion to protect the children instead of hurt them. The short-term effects from spanking worked in the study, but the long term concludes the child is more violent than other disorders as age development.
Child Abuse Long-term Effects
The comportment of child abuse and neglect is frequently deliberated in positions of physical, emotional, behavioral, and societal consequences (Childhelp, n.d.). In reality, however, it is impossible to separate all types of bearings. Physical consequences, such as damage to a child’s growing brain, can have emotional repercussions, such as cognitive delays or emotional difficulties. Psychological problems often noticeable as high-risk behaviors for those who been abused. High-risk actions can lead to enduring somatic fitness difficulties, such as but not limited to, corpulence and or cancer. Not all youngsters who have been mistreated will experience long-standing effects, but they may have an enlarged vulnerability.
Some societies have no trouble of agreeing with using a few corrective measurements to control a child. The American Academy of Pediatricians established that spanking might do more harm than good. This implies that spanking will not correct the difficulties of the child’s behavior, but will only make them worse (American Psychological Association, 2013). Some people in societies dispute that child spanking will have an undesirable effect on the youngster’s complete being since it shows the child insubordinate conduct. It diverts the youngster from the information on how to make a resolution to personal conflict in a humane manner. However, societies argue that spanking is suitable when a child is performing an action that is probable to cause threat or detriment; therefore it is appropriate if followed up with a reason why it is appropriate because it encourages disciplined performance without negative results. If the actions are bad enough for a spanking the parent must clearly state and carefully explain to the child why they are receiving the spanking; there can be reciprocated explanations why both sides have the same viewpoint of just wanting to correct a child’s behaviors. There are many explanations why it is healthier not to strike a child. Physicians and researchers conduct many researches to find out how often a child has to be spanked to create the child's action to be different. Corporal punishment instills in kids to be insubordinate and subsequently to develop low self-esteem amongst other long-term disorders (American Psychological Association, 2013).
Societies Role on Child Abuse
Society helps to create mental and emotional disorders for the future human generations by practicing the accepted social values such as corporal punishment. Societies around the globe all have different cultures and values. Even though societies are different in many of the practiced values and social norms they all practiced corporal punishment to reprimand the children. Society’s social values are learned from passing of generation to generation. People have used spanking for a means of punishing misbehaviors in children for a variety of years. The Greeks and Romans of the classical era used corporal punishment to discipline the soldiers. Self-flagellation, was the main use for this in the Middle Ages, the body was seen as unclean through the eyes of the church; therefore, they punished themselves for cleansing. From the 1800’s up until the early nineteenth century, physical punishment was used for floggings of the disobedient pupils and public beatings of the criminals, which was considered a grand display to witness. Throughout the nineteenth century societies seen these grand displays as inhumane; therefore they began to decline the beatings of criminals, but modern times kept it for a punishment to the children. Domestic or parental corporal punishment is what spanking is termed in the eyes of the law; only in the countries that have banned corporal punishment of children. Children are only innocent bystanders that are anxiously excited to be trained how to perform in the social order. When a parent becomes too overwhelmed from the environmental conditions, they do not realize the mental and emotional distress they created for the child by inflicting purposeful pain on them by releasing frustrations of society out on the child.
Parents all over the world have the same three views that equal out in the same issues for raising their children. Safety and wellbeing of the children, high quality parent and child relations, and ensuring children grows up to become productive adults that transmit their cultural values. Within the worlds, societies and country’s there are different social classes. They relate to one another in different ways but one thing that links these people are the physical spankings accepted by the surroundings of the people. Social class has to do with the income level an individual or family receives. Lower income families in America have more child abuse and neglect than any other social class. This is due to the harshness of the families’ hard times that they endure. The stressful situations due to the lack of money lead into the problems for children from the parents. Parents who are stressed or depressed stop thinking about the best interest of the child and start thinking the child is acting in an inappropriate manner to despite the parent. Therefore, this leads into the response of hitting the child to try to help control the child’s behaviors. People who are not affording the economy needs as easy as others do lash out from disappointment and anger, therefore; their understanding abilities are not as clear as they need them to be. When an anger person smacks a child they take all the built up anger and frustrations out on the small child; resulting in brutally hitting than intended and sometimes death. The only way to prevent this from happening to children who are too small to fight back and for them to leave is not an option is to change the laws of the land; therefore, physical punishment cannot create victims of child abuse.
Child abuse is a very serious global problem that has negative life-long-term consequences.
Sadly there are no real precise or reliable estimations for the occurrence of child abuse. Child abuse data is lacking in many societies especially lower and middle class. These lower limited countries also have lower amounts of prevention techniques to follow. Many people do not associate spanking to violence creates violence. If a child is hit then he or she believes it is ok to hit; therefore, they become violent, aggressive and depressed. The parent sets examples by actions as well as rules; therefore, if the parent hits the child the child thinks this is acceptable. Most societies that use corporal or physical punishment do not associate the realistic point of violence becomes more in the future. A child sees violence and/or receives for their misbehaviors this ends up sending the message it is necessary to punish people with a harsh form of violence. For every action, there is a reaction. Example if someone does them wrong then they should correct the situation with violence (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services,
n.d.).
Hypothesis
The research over the years has shown similar results, the fact that child abuse and neglect create mostly long-term difficulties in adulthood for children who are spanked. The mental impacts on these children are significance and the more that it happens the more people will be affected. People do not see the negative effects will continue to grow worse over time if the child rearing conditions do not improve. Societies will not agree on everything, but the matter of child abuse needs to be seen, and the results can change for future generations.
The more people ignore the results of the studies from research over the years the worse mental disorders will become in adults. Children who are spanked have more anger than those who are not spanked. This anger and confusion builds up over time and leads into problems that last for the rest of their lives. Societies need to change the way they punish children in order to change the negative effects.
Resources
American Psychological Association (2013). Family Stress, Beliefs About Parenting and
Cognitive and Emotional Reactions to Children's Misbehavior can Lead to Harsh Discipline, Says New Study. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/09/family-stress.aspx American Psychological Association (2013). Is Corporal Punishment an Effective Means of
Discipline? Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2002/06/spanking.aspx
Childhelp (2011, November 9). Abuse and Neglect Defined | Childhelp. Retrieved from http://www.childhelp.org/blog/entry/abuse-and-neglect-defined/ Childhelp (n.d.). What is Child Abuse | Childhelp. Retrieved from http://www.childhelp.org/pages/what-is-child-abuse Office for the Protection of Children and Youth (1975). Reporting Child Abuse – Office for the
Protection of Children and Youth - Archdiocese of Chicago. Retrieved from http://www.archchicago.org/departments/protection/reporting.shtm
Smith, B. L. (2012). The case against spanking. Physical discipline is slowly declining as some studies reveal lasting harms for children, 43(4), 60. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/spanking.aspx U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (n.d.). History of National Child Abuse
Prevention Month. Retrieved from https://www.childwelfare.gov/preventing/preventionmonth/history.cfm
Billie J. Hensley
Saint Leo University
Abstract
Children who are spanked grow into adulthood with mental and emotional disorders that affect them and those surrounding them for life. Childhood experiences are thought to influence the development of mental health problems later in life. Whether people agree or disagree on spanking research findings from past years, they show at least nine reasons that physical punishment should not be used on children with corporal punishment. The purpose of this paper is to gather information from already completed research to help add a new level of understanding. Many variables play a role in why …show more content…
parents use spanking for punishment such as ethnicity, social class, income, and society. It is predicted that the youth who receives physical punishment shows more aggression and develops mental disorders in adulthood.
keywords: spanking, child development, behavioral development, cognitive development
Does Spanking Children Create Mental or Emotional Problems with Development in Adulthood?
Mental health has to do with a complex interactive association with a person’s physical health and ability to prosper in society; both physical and mental health affect how people think, feel and act. Overall, this is an essential part of children's health (Childhelp, n.d.).
Child neglects definition as abuse in relation to failure to provide appropriate care, food, clothes, and housing. Neglect is not physical abuse it is more than one incident situation. It is designate by a pattern of improper care and observed by a person who has had close contact with the child. Neglect is usually noticed by poor hygiene, inadequate weight gain, improper medical care, etc. There have been four types of neglect classified educational, mental, emotional, and physical (Childhelp, 2011).
Child abuse occurs is when a caretaker inflicts physical harm to a child while in their care on purpose. There are many forms of child abuse, such as physical abuse, fetal abuse, emotional abuse, and spiritual abuse (Childhelp, …show more content…
2011).
Physical means of punishment were not always seen as abuse when parenting, due to society’s approval on means of punishment. The study shows spanking as a punishment to children, and other forms of physical discipline have profound effects on a child’s mental, behavior, and physical attributes. The mental disorder it creates includes, but is not limited to, adult anxiety, depression, and aggression. Also, drugs and alcohol dependence has been recorded problem for adults who were spanked as a child. Child abuse has not always been known as abuse due to societies using a harsh punishment to teach children how to become productive adult citizens (Smith, 2012).
Acts Against Child Abuse
The legislature passed an act in the year of 1975 to protect children from enduring harsh unnecessary punishments or neglect. An act was passed on child abuse that requires any person to report child abuse and neglect. The act helps to be responsible for the safety of children who are battered or mistreated. This action helped the authorities to create an area of social services to prohibit child abuse and neglect. This area of social services helps make it the obligations of law organization’s responsibility to defend and enhance the welfare of youngsters and sanctuary family life. This act became a law known as “child protection law” (Office for the Protection of Children and Youth, n.d.).
Before the new laws went into effect, the phrase child abuse’ was uncommon to hear but was too common to see. Children who are spanked are often abused regularly, once hit the caretaker gets harsher as time goes. This is due to the reactions of the parents; one swat was fine, then in time the more stress the worse the hitting and swatting to the child. The children who had been spanked were more likely to be insubordinate, demand immediate gratification of their wants and needs, become more exasperated easier, have anger outbursts, and have physical outburst against other people or mistreat animals. Thus, may-be that spanking sets up a continuous motion of misbehaviors. Corporal punishment implants fear rather than information. Even if children stop tantrums when spanked, that does not mean they get why they should not have been acting out in the misbehaving manner in the first place. In addition, spanking sets a bad example, training children that aggressive behavior is a resolution to their parents' complications. People noticed more children receiving injuries, and this was not a simple child-rearing situation anymore. This set the child protection laws into motion to protect the children instead of hurt them. The short-term effects from spanking worked in the study, but the long term concludes the child is more violent than other disorders as age development.
Child Abuse Long-term Effects
The comportment of child abuse and neglect is frequently deliberated in positions of physical, emotional, behavioral, and societal consequences (Childhelp, n.d.). In reality, however, it is impossible to separate all types of bearings. Physical consequences, such as damage to a child’s growing brain, can have emotional repercussions, such as cognitive delays or emotional difficulties. Psychological problems often noticeable as high-risk behaviors for those who been abused. High-risk actions can lead to enduring somatic fitness difficulties, such as but not limited to, corpulence and or cancer. Not all youngsters who have been mistreated will experience long-standing effects, but they may have an enlarged vulnerability.
Some societies have no trouble of agreeing with using a few corrective measurements to control a child. The American Academy of Pediatricians established that spanking might do more harm than good. This implies that spanking will not correct the difficulties of the child’s behavior, but will only make them worse (American Psychological Association, 2013). Some people in societies dispute that child spanking will have an undesirable effect on the youngster’s complete being since it shows the child insubordinate conduct. It diverts the youngster from the information on how to make a resolution to personal conflict in a humane manner. However, societies argue that spanking is suitable when a child is performing an action that is probable to cause threat or detriment; therefore it is appropriate if followed up with a reason why it is appropriate because it encourages disciplined performance without negative results. If the actions are bad enough for a spanking the parent must clearly state and carefully explain to the child why they are receiving the spanking; there can be reciprocated explanations why both sides have the same viewpoint of just wanting to correct a child’s behaviors. There are many explanations why it is healthier not to strike a child. Physicians and researchers conduct many researches to find out how often a child has to be spanked to create the child's action to be different. Corporal punishment instills in kids to be insubordinate and subsequently to develop low self-esteem amongst other long-term disorders (American Psychological Association, 2013).
Societies Role on Child Abuse
Society helps to create mental and emotional disorders for the future human generations by practicing the accepted social values such as corporal punishment. Societies around the globe all have different cultures and values. Even though societies are different in many of the practiced values and social norms they all practiced corporal punishment to reprimand the children. Society’s social values are learned from passing of generation to generation. People have used spanking for a means of punishing misbehaviors in children for a variety of years. The Greeks and Romans of the classical era used corporal punishment to discipline the soldiers. Self-flagellation, was the main use for this in the Middle Ages, the body was seen as unclean through the eyes of the church; therefore, they punished themselves for cleansing. From the 1800’s up until the early nineteenth century, physical punishment was used for floggings of the disobedient pupils and public beatings of the criminals, which was considered a grand display to witness. Throughout the nineteenth century societies seen these grand displays as inhumane; therefore they began to decline the beatings of criminals, but modern times kept it for a punishment to the children. Domestic or parental corporal punishment is what spanking is termed in the eyes of the law; only in the countries that have banned corporal punishment of children. Children are only innocent bystanders that are anxiously excited to be trained how to perform in the social order. When a parent becomes too overwhelmed from the environmental conditions, they do not realize the mental and emotional distress they created for the child by inflicting purposeful pain on them by releasing frustrations of society out on the child.
Parents all over the world have the same three views that equal out in the same issues for raising their children. Safety and wellbeing of the children, high quality parent and child relations, and ensuring children grows up to become productive adults that transmit their cultural values. Within the worlds, societies and country’s there are different social classes. They relate to one another in different ways but one thing that links these people are the physical spankings accepted by the surroundings of the people. Social class has to do with the income level an individual or family receives. Lower income families in America have more child abuse and neglect than any other social class. This is due to the harshness of the families’ hard times that they endure. The stressful situations due to the lack of money lead into the problems for children from the parents. Parents who are stressed or depressed stop thinking about the best interest of the child and start thinking the child is acting in an inappropriate manner to despite the parent. Therefore, this leads into the response of hitting the child to try to help control the child’s behaviors. People who are not affording the economy needs as easy as others do lash out from disappointment and anger, therefore; their understanding abilities are not as clear as they need them to be. When an anger person smacks a child they take all the built up anger and frustrations out on the small child; resulting in brutally hitting than intended and sometimes death. The only way to prevent this from happening to children who are too small to fight back and for them to leave is not an option is to change the laws of the land; therefore, physical punishment cannot create victims of child abuse.
Child abuse is a very serious global problem that has negative life-long-term consequences.
Sadly there are no real precise or reliable estimations for the occurrence of child abuse. Child abuse data is lacking in many societies especially lower and middle class. These lower limited countries also have lower amounts of prevention techniques to follow. Many people do not associate spanking to violence creates violence. If a child is hit then he or she believes it is ok to hit; therefore, they become violent, aggressive and depressed. The parent sets examples by actions as well as rules; therefore, if the parent hits the child the child thinks this is acceptable. Most societies that use corporal or physical punishment do not associate the realistic point of violence becomes more in the future. A child sees violence and/or receives for their misbehaviors this ends up sending the message it is necessary to punish people with a harsh form of violence. For every action, there is a reaction. Example if someone does them wrong then they should correct the situation with violence (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services,
n.d.).
Hypothesis
The research over the years has shown similar results, the fact that child abuse and neglect create mostly long-term difficulties in adulthood for children who are spanked. The mental impacts on these children are significance and the more that it happens the more people will be affected. People do not see the negative effects will continue to grow worse over time if the child rearing conditions do not improve. Societies will not agree on everything, but the matter of child abuse needs to be seen, and the results can change for future generations.
The more people ignore the results of the studies from research over the years the worse mental disorders will become in adults. Children who are spanked have more anger than those who are not spanked. This anger and confusion builds up over time and leads into problems that last for the rest of their lives. Societies need to change the way they punish children in order to change the negative effects.
Resources
American Psychological Association (2013). Family Stress, Beliefs About Parenting and
Cognitive and Emotional Reactions to Children's Misbehavior can Lead to Harsh Discipline, Says New Study. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/09/family-stress.aspx American Psychological Association (2013). Is Corporal Punishment an Effective Means of
Discipline? Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2002/06/spanking.aspx
Childhelp (2011, November 9). Abuse and Neglect Defined | Childhelp. Retrieved from http://www.childhelp.org/blog/entry/abuse-and-neglect-defined/ Childhelp (n.d.). What is Child Abuse | Childhelp. Retrieved from http://www.childhelp.org/pages/what-is-child-abuse Office for the Protection of Children and Youth (1975). Reporting Child Abuse – Office for the
Protection of Children and Youth - Archdiocese of Chicago. Retrieved from http://www.archchicago.org/departments/protection/reporting.shtm
Smith, B. L. (2012). The case against spanking. Physical discipline is slowly declining as some studies reveal lasting harms for children, 43(4), 60. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/spanking.aspx U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (n.d.). History of National Child Abuse
Prevention Month. Retrieved from https://www.childwelfare.gov/preventing/preventionmonth/history.cfm