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Spare the Rod?
Spare the Rod? Maybe | ||||
| A study indicates a halt to spanking could decrease violence in the U.S.; critics are doubtful | ||||
| BY MICHAEL D. LEMONICK | ||||
| ONE OF THE TOUGHEST PARTS | years later. Sure enough, the kids who | development if it is confined to | ||
| OF parenting is the seemingly | had been spanked had become in- | youngsters between 18 months and 6 | ||
| endless series of decisions you | creasingly [id:11630]. | years. Straus [id:11632]. He writes, “It | ||
| have to make. Breast-feeding | But when you look a little closer at | is plausible to argue that corporal | ||
| or formula? Cloth or disposable | these findings, they start to seem a bit | punishment of toddlers will have a | ||
| nappies? Day care or the mommy | less straightforward. To begin with, | more damaging effect than it does on | ||
| track? It is not as though there is an | observes Dr Den Trumbull, a Mont- | older kids because it occurs at a | ||
| absolute right answer to any of these | gomery pediatrician, the women | crucial developmental stage.” | ||
| questions – yet parents often feel the | interviewed became mothers bet- | Trumbull, who is pro-spanking, adds | ||
| wrong choice could be disastrous.That | ween 14 and 21. That is hardly a | that he favors corporal punishment | ||
| is especially true when it comes to | representative slice of American | only as a last resort, after putting a | ||
| spanking. Every parent has been in a | motherhood. [id:11631], those who | child on time out – a few minutes of | ||
| situation where [id:11627] seems like the | spanked did so on average twice a | inactivity – then warning him or her | ||
| only right way to correct little Janie’s |  | that the next miscue will bring a | ||
| or Johnny’s behavior. But at least | whack. Still, he says, punishment | |||
| since the 1960s, the conventional | should be limited to one or two mild | |||
| wisdom preached by parenting gurus | slaps on the buttocks. His views are | |||
| has been that hitting is generally un- | widely shared. According to recent | |||
| wise because it sends a message that | polls, more than two-thirds of pedia- | |||
| violence is an acceptable way to solve | tricians [id:11633]parental spanking in | |||
| disputes. | certain situations. | |||
| Now comes a scientific study that | “The usual example,” says child- | |||
| frames the issue in larger societal | abuse authority Mary Ann Mason, who | |||
| terms.Writing in the journal Archives | teaches a course on Children and the | |||
| of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, | Law at the University of California, | |||
| University of New Hampshire sociolo- | Berkeley, “is when a kid races across | |||
| gist Murray Straus and his colleagues | the street in front of a car. The slap | |||
| report that “when parents use | literally imprints on him the need for | |||
| corporal punishment to correct anti- | safety. [id:11634] would consider that | |||
| social behavior, the long-term effect | child abuse.” | |||
| tends to be the opposite.” Not only | It is the legitimate fear of child ab- | |||
| that – the authors suggest that if you | BAD OLD DAYS? Not necessarily. | use that Trumbull believes is largely | ||
| spare the rod, you will help [id:11628] | In certain situations, say many pe- | behind the anti-spanking movement, | ||
| the overall level of violence in Amer- | diatricians, a whack on the bottom | which started in the 1960s with the | ||
| ican society. | may be good parenting | advent of more permissive parenting. | ||
| Straus’ study, first presented at a | week. These factors, says Trumbull, | But in the past decade or so, [id:11635] | ||
| conference in 1994 and now appearing | plus the fact that some of the kids | in child-abuse cases has had public- | ||
| in formal publication with a more | were as old as nine, “are markers of a | health officials scrambling for an ex- | ||
| careful analysis of the data, is [id:11629]. | dysfunctional family in my mind, and | planation. Blaming spanking made | ||
| It may prove something, say critics, but | in the minds of most psychologists and | sense; the notion that violence begets | ||
| not what Straus thinks it does. | pediatricians.” | violence has a certain touchy-feely | ||
| The problem has to do with who was | Trumbull also observes that limiting | logic. Besides, most parents feel | ||
| in the study. Straus and company got | the study to 6-to-9 year-olds distorted | terrible after spanking their kids.What | ||
| their information from telephone | the results: by then kids can under- | better reason to cut it out? | ||
| interviews conducted by the U.S. | stand the consequences of their ac- | Trouble is, while spanking is down, | ||
| Bureau of Labor Statistics beginning | tions. For them frequent physical pun- | child abuse is still up. It appears that | ||
| in 1979 with 807 mothers of children | ishment is likely to be humiliating and | well-meaning professionals have been | ||
| aged 6 to 9. They were asked how | traumatic – and might well lead to | using the wrong whipping boy – and | ||
| many times they had spanked their | worse behavior down the line. | [id:11636] offers little reason to change | ||
| children in the past week and what the | According to Trumbull, more | that observation. – Reported by Alice | ||
| kids’ behavior was like – did they lie, | sophisticated studies have consistently | Park/New York and Jacqueline | ||
| cheat, act up in school? Then the | shown that corporal punishment is | Savaiano/Los Angeles | ||
| bureau polled the same group two | effective and not harmful to long-term | |||
| ‘Time’, August 25, 1997 | ||||