Recently, there was a serious discussion in one super popular online parenting community about whether to punish children by spanking their buttocks. Oddly enough, the majority was in favor of embedding properly. Why is this medieval punishment so popular? Tells children’s analyst Anna Skavitina.
“Typically, parents who spank children don’t realize that they are committing violence. Or for them this fact is not an argument. Moreover, many adults fully approve of such an educational measure. According to my subjective assessment, about half of Russian parents, and maybe a little more, believe that spanking children is necessary and even useful. The main evidence: “We were beaten, we grew up and nothing. If we hadn’t been beaten, maybe none of us would have succeeded.” (At this point, I always want to object that no one knows what would have happened if they had not been beaten …). But there is another argument: “The child does not understand differently.” The fact that in many European countries spanking children is prohibited by law leaves Russian parents indifferent or causes a defensive reaction: “We are not Europe, we have a different mentality.” And in the US, spanking is not illegal. Maybe they know something important about physical punishment?
For many years, American psychologists have conducted research on the assessment of the harm of corporal punishment. According to the results of the research, the Committee for Child Development came out strongly against them *. Spanking has been found to generate more behavioral problems than other forms of punishment. In addition, it makes children aggressive, depressed and depressed, and slows down their intellectual development. A Tulane University School of Public Health study led by Catherine Taylor** in 2010 found that three-year-olds who were spanked more than twice a month were 50% more likely than non-spanked children to be overly aggressive by age five. This took into account both maternal aggression and the abuse of alcohol (or drugs) of the parents, as well as the initial level of aggression of the child. It is also known that children who are beaten experience more learning difficulties compared to those who are punished differently by their parents. The reason is obvious – spanking affects the development of the child in a very specific way: his brain goes from development mode to survival mode.
So why, even after knowing (or knowing) all this, do parents continue to spank their children? It’s simple: any other methods of education require effort. And in order to “give in the ass” – nothing at all is required. This is an act of immediate response. Instant relief from one’s own impotence – and an attempt to show oneself that something is happening, something is being done, someone is being brought up somehow.
* Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family. «Issue #3: Is It Abusive to Spank a Child?», подробнее на nnflp.org/apa/issue3.html
** Taylor, C.A. et al. «Mothers’ Spanking of 3-Year-Old Children and Subsequent Risk of Children’s Aggressive Behavior». Pediatrics 125 (2010).