Physical punishment

Physical punishment is the infliction of unpleasant or painful bodily sensations.

Without explaining what we are talking about, men usually mean a hard slap on the buttocks, women — spanking with a belt.

By physical punishment they mean a variety of things: from squats by agreement to regular beatings. Of great importance is who spanks, in what situation and against the background of what relationship: one thing is a drunk mother regularly rewards her son with cuffs, and in front of everyone, and the rest of the time humiliates and beats with words, another thing is a strict and loving father, whom the son is proud of , once spanked his son when he allowed himself to insult his mother. Accordingly, talking about the admissibility or inadmissibility of physical punishment and references to certain studies do not make sense until it is clarified which physical punishments are in question.

Called the same, physical punishments are very different from each other, especially those applied by different parents in different situations to children of different ages and characters. This may be an attempt by parents to draw attention to what they are saying when the child does not hear them or does not want to hear them. Once upon a time, this is a message to the child about the undesirability of certain of his actions, if the child does not understand the verbal appeal or decided not to understand. A simple slap can be a simple, unwanted reinforcement; a specific slap can be a just punishment that relieves the child of guilt. Children’s perception of physical punishment is also very diverse. Sometimes it is just a pain of one force or another, to which the child relates in the same way as to a blow during a fall. In another situation, this is perceived as humiliation, especially if it happens in front of people significant to the child. In some cases, physical punishment is a typical power struggle between parents and a child, and once a petty revenge of parents for their own personal troubles.

What are the long-term effects of physical punishment? A very controversial issue. On the one hand, experiments in the field of social psychology show the insignificance of the long-term consequences of physical abuse experienced in childhood, as well as the extremely insignificant influence of the family situation during childhood on the behavior and life of an adult, etc. On the other hand, other researchers argue that children who are subjected to physical punishment, have a large number of emotional and behavioral problems, especially those associated with aggression, depression and violence towards others.

An even more curious question: what is more painful, what is more effective. What is more traumatic — physical or moral punishment? Men are more likely to use physical punishment — in their opinion, they are more effective and the risk of psychological trauma is not so high (it is much more difficult for men to endure mother’s tears, the soul is loaded with guilt).

Assessing the acceptability and effectiveness of physical punishment is complex. Mild physical punishments can be quite acceptable, cruel ones are more likely not. From one adult they are allowed and almost a reward, from another — an unacceptable insult, even when it’s for a cause. Men, as a rule, are sympathetic to physical punishment, women usually protest sharply. Influencing physically with the aim of humiliating, injuring and hurting another person, especially a child, is definitely unacceptable. It is possible and necessary to influence physically in order to stop the negative (aggression, hysteria, strength test) in a proportionate form, but each time it is necessary to understand.

As a method of raising children, physical punishment is considered acceptable in some systems of disciplinary approach in parenting and is strongly discouraged in free parenting.