Does physically discipling children improve their behavior in the long run or actually make it worse?

NFL Star Charged with Child Abuse

Recently, NFL star Adrian Peterson was indicted for child abuse and placed on the inactive team player list. Peterson is charged with disciplining his 4-year-old son and hitting him with a switch. The child ended up having to go to a hospital for treatment. In a recent poll, over half of Americans state that it is acceptable to use corporal punishment to discipline a child. However, some states do not allow spanking by a parent, and most states do not allow schools to use corporal punishment at all.

Can you Discipline a Child Without Using Corporal Punishment?

Most behavioral psychologists believe that parents can use words to improve children’s behavior.  Shouting or hitting is not only unnecessary, but counterproductive. “Although spanking may immediately reduce or stop an undesired behavior, its effectiveness decreases with subsequent use,” the pediatricians group said in advice on discipline .

Why Do Parents Use Corporal Punishment?

Parents often pay more attention to the negative things that their child does — it’s just part of human nature to focus on the negative. Therefore most parents are paying more attention to a child’s bad behavior (which may only be for a moment), than the good behavior during the rest of the day. Studies also indicate that watching or engaging in aggressive behavior  (tuning in to a football game or actually hitting someone) excites rewards centers in the brain. In addition, some religions not only view that hitting a child is “okay”, but it is your obligation — “spare the rod and spoil the child.”

When Yelling or Spanking Escalates to Child Abuse

Many parents recognize that yelling or spanking doesn’t work. Studies show that children or teenagers often become aggressive just a few minutes after being hit or yelled at. Their brain is thinking, “Hey, if it’s okay to yell at me or hit me, I can yell or hit someone else.” When parents observe this, they may be thinking,”I need to do something else other than talking, shaking or spanking — something stronger”. Most parents do not plan to abuse their child, it often escalates from yelling, shaking, and spanking, to hitting or beating.” The point is, if you draw the line at using words to communicate with you child to modify their behavior, you will not fall into a trap of hitting them or abusing them.

How Should You Punish a Child for Bad Behavior?

Punishment should rarely be used as a method to modify a child’s behavior.  That’s the conclusion of many behavioral psychologists. Sometimes punishment can be interpreted by a child as its own reward and a child will behave badly just to be punished — to get attention. Decades of research indicates that praising a child for good behavior is much more effective in changing behavior than using punishment as a consequence.

 In a recent study in the journal Pediatrics, kids who were spanked more than twice a month as 3-year-olds were much more likely to become aggressive 5-year-olds than kids who were not spanked. The inference is that the more you hit a child the more likely he will grow up to become violent.

Nonetheless, with all the evidence and studies available, corporal punishment remains common across America and is widely seen to be normal by most parents.