Corporal punishment is a form of positive punishment by inflicting physical pain or injury through spanking, caning, and hitting. Numerous studies have highlighted the negative implications of corporal punishment (physical punishment). Yet in many cultures, it is still considered an effective and even necessary tool to discipline children.
Parents need to realize that corporal punishment has widespread implications including: counter-aggression, stunted intellectual, social, and cognitive development, and damages parent-child relationships.
Implications of corporal punishment
Social effects
Research has shown that corporal punishment can decrease oppositional behavior in the short run, but normalizes aggression in the long run. This leads to more defiant behavior and even counter-aggression in some cases!
On the flip side, physical punishment can lead to avoidance or escape behaviors. Once your child associates certain places/people with physical punishment, they will automatically avoid them. Regular avoidance behavior damages parent-child relationships and stunts social development.
Cognitive effects
Cognitive development stems from social interactions. If a child’s parents rely heavily on physical punishment, they deprive the child of explanations involving reasoning and problem-solving which are critical to cognitive development. Furthermore physical punishment can cause anxiety; this suppresses a child’s desire to explore relationships and environments, making it less likely that they train key cognitive skills.
Mental health issues
Physical punishment is highly associated with love withdrawal, depression, and internalizing behavior. Researchers found that regardless of ethnicity, high-school students who were physically punished had higher rates of depression and internalized behavior.
Damages parent-child relationships
A secure attachment is vital for healthy parent-child relationships. Generally, attachments are strengthened by warm, loving, parent-child interactions and weakened by harsh, punitive interactions. Physical punishment weakens the security of your child’s attachment, which also affects their feelings of security and wellbeing in their family. Studies have shown that when parents physically punish their children, the child does not understand that it is for their benefit, often interpreting it as their parents not loving them.
The underlying issue
The controversy surrounding physical punishment lies in the question: where do we draw the line between physical punishment and child abuse? You cannot definitively draw a line and this is why parents should not use physical punishment.
Sources
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1948&context=td
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