The report recommends that parents and caregivers make every effort to avoid physical punishment and calls for the banning of physical discipline in all U.S. That is why it is so dangerous,” she says.Īfter reviewing decades of research, Gershoff wrote the Report on Physical Punishment in the United States: What Research Tells Us About Its Effects on Children, published in 2008 in conjunction with Phoenix Children’s Hospital. ![]() “Physical punishment doesn’t work to get kids to comply, so parents think they have to keep escalating it. The legal bans typically have been used as public education tools, rather than attempts to criminalize behavior by parents who spank their children, says Elizabeth Gershoff, PhD, a leading researcher on physical punishment at the University of Texas at Austin. ![]() The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a directive in 2006 calling physical punishment “legalized violence against children” that should be eliminated in all settings through “legislative, administrative, social and educational measures.” The treaty that established the committee has been supported by 192 countries, with only the United States and Somalia failing to ratify it.Īround the world, 30 countries have banned physical punishment of children in all settings, including the home. On the international front, physical discipline is increasingly being viewed as a violation of children’s human rights. We are saying this is a horrible thing that does not work.” Evidence of harm We are not giving up an effective technique. “There is no need for corporal punishment based on the research. “You cannot punish out these behaviors that you do not want,” says Kazdin, who served as APA president in 2008. Americans’ acceptance of physical punishment has declined since the 1960s, yet surveys show that two-thirds of Americans still approve of parents spanking their kids.īut spanking doesn’t work, says Alan Kazdin, PhD, a Yale University psychology professor and director of the Yale Parenting Center and Child Conduct Clinic. Many studies have shown that physical punishment - including spanking, hitting and other means of causing pain - can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children. Maybe they don’t see there are other options.” ![]() “People get frustrated and hit their kids. “It’s a very controversial area even though the research is extremely telling and very clear and consistent about the negative effects on children,” says Sandra Graham-Bermann, PhD, a psychology professor and principal investigator for the Child Violence and Trauma Laboratory at the University of Michigan. A growing body of research has shown that spanking and other forms of physical discipline can pose serious risks to children, but many parents aren’t hearing the message.
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