Spanking Vs Corporal Punishment

Spanking in today’s society is a highly controversial topic. Spanking in most opinions of professionals is rated highly as being detrimental to the outcome of children both initially and longitudinally. This paper offers an in depth look at four research studies that primarily outline the reasons for which spanking or corporal punishment is considered to be detrimental to the development of children. It is with much attention to research studies that I cannot deny the fact that spanking results in undesirable outcomes in children’s negative behavior and cognitive abilities throughout development. The following studies discussed will aim to show that spanking not only resulted in behavior and aggression problems, but also correlated to later …show more content…
The research study used the Torbit regression analysis and data from a longitudinal study that examined the chronicity and prevalence of spanking within sample parents. The research stated that “most parents have spanked their children at some point” (Grogan-Kaylor & Otis, 2006). Taking on a new area of perspective the research within this study also examines for the change within with primary parental figures. With past research, we have mainly focused on the mother and her being the primary source of corporal punishment due to the amount of time spent with the child. However, in recent years there has been a shift where more mothers are working which has resulted in more corporal punishment being performed by fathers as well. The study went on to find the predictors of corporal punishment use, using the torbit analysis as well as the question of how many times parents spanked their children on average. Many factors were taken into account as to the reasons that parental units used corporal punishment. The researchers found that a mother’s education and age were not directly related to the use of corporal punishment. However, use of corporal punishment was lessened by the amount of cognitive stimulation given within the home. One of the largest areas that affected the use of corporal punishment was that of religious affiliation researchers found. It was found that more protestant parents used corporal punishment than that of catholic parents. Within the research, it was also found that the more corporal punishment that was used the more behavioral problems directly relating to externalizing and internalizing behaviors was