Why Spanking Is Wrong

Spanking Makes a Parent Wrong, Not a Misbehaved Child Despite being commonly practiced throughout society, spanking remains a highly controversial topic. Spanking is analogous to abuse in nature- it involves inflicting pain (usually by hand) onto the rear of a child in response to socially unacceptable behavior. A 2013 study conducted by The Harris Poll revealed horrifying statistics that eighty-one percent of Americans believe it is “sometimes appropriate” to spank their children (Corso) in order to establish discipline. Although this is believed by many parents to promote good behavior, it in fact does the opposite. Parents should not have the right to spank their children because it is not an effective method of changing behavior, it is

Spanking does not give a child an opportunity to understand why bad behavior is wrong. In essence, all spanking does is instill fear of acting badly when the threat of being hit is available. By only being used when bad behavior is displayed, the child does not inherit a desire to behave when the possibility of being spanked is gone. (Gershoff 134). It also noteworthy to point out that children learn by example. As Gershoff also states, “Children who are spanked are more likely to attribute hostile intentions to others. . . .” If a child is spanked each time they misbehave, they could grow up to believe that it is acceptable to hit another person for doing things they might not like. Spanking a child is a heinous way to show them how to get what they want through violence, not an effective way to correct their

According to a study done by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, children that are spanked have a chance of developing lower IQ scores than those that are not. IQ (also known as the intelligence quotient) is a tool used to measure how smart an individual is. The study tested the IQ of a group of children that were spanked compared to a group that were not. Results from the study showed that children ages two to four that were disciplined by spanking “scored five points lower than their counterparts” (Favela). Another important finding is that children that are spanked tend to display aggressive behavior over time. An assistant professor by the name of Catherine Taylor conducted a study of over two-thousand children to show how aggression played a role in students that were spanked in comparison to those that were not. According to Taylor, “children who have been spanked are at a greater risk of becoming bullies.”(Favela). Disciplining a child by spanking them might cause pain for only a brief amount of time, but it is not worth the long-term problems that it could possibly cause.

Any parent that chooses to discipline a child through the use of spanking should consider the harm and injustice that they are inflicting by doing so. Spanking serves as a problem more than it does as a solution when it comes to disciplining children. Parents should not have the right to spank their