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Corporal punishment with children:

Spanking
Cortney Huber
Wright State University

Abstract
One of the big controversies that has always been a debate but has strongly been talked
about recently is whether or not you should use corporal punishment on children, specifically
spanking. Of course just like any case there are two sides to this issue. One being that is okay to
use corporal punishment and the other is to use less harmful means to correct a child. Along
with an opinion everyone has about the topic you must look at all of the demographics associated
with it that may show data that there may be a certain set of criteria that allows this to happen
more often than not. While everyone is different, research may have found a trend noticing that
in certain cases corporal punishment is bound to happen which in that case you must look at the
other aspects such as chronicity, severity and duration. Finally, there are many different methods
associated with spanking you must look into those as well when comparing all these elements to
decide if this is beneficial and safe for children.

Corporal punishment with children: Spanking

Levels of Corporal punishment- Explanation of behavior
Throughout history people have their own ways of dealing with a child that doesnt
behave appropriately all of the time. They are a child, they are learning about life and what is
acceptable and what is not just as you are learning to figure out how to guide them in the best
possible way to make them successful. When a child or your child does something that needs to
be corrected there are multiple ways in which you can correct them from a timeout to a slap on
the wrist, or shake it off and think they will learn eventually to a spanking. Ever scenario will
have one less extreme than the other its all about what the reader thinks is right or even how the
reader was raised or what thoughts might work better than others. On top of personal opinion
society as a whole is starting to judge how people deal with a screaming child in a grocery store
or even one that refuses to do their work in class and talks back. Considering what is best for the
child and not letting personal feelings and emotion get in the way, without losing sight of what is
the correct level of punishment for the adolescent figure is they key point. Corporal punishment:
The use of physical force with the intention of causing the child to experience pain, but not
injury, for the purpose of correction or control of the childs behavior (Stratus, 1994).
Types of Corporal Punishment:
This topic is very hard to dissect because of the amount of variables that are in play on
top of the amount of mixture of variables you can have. Peron focuses on the top six most
common types of corporal punishment. The top most recent six ways to use corporal punishment
are spanked on the bottom with bare hand, slapped on the hand, arm or leg, pinched, shook (3

years or older), hit on bottom with belt, hair brush or stick, slapped on the face, hand or ears.
(Perron, 2014)

When first looking at this list the reader can question why someone would not want to do
these things to a child then also look at the list and think one might be appropriate. When diving
into an article about a trending touchy topic its important to look at other elements that might
affect the way people view it. Thats why on top of looking at different types of corporal
punishment reading will be provided on the chronicity, severity and duration at which these
happen. When speaking about chronicity you want to think along the lines of how often do these
types of punishments happen and why. Chronicity by deffinition.com is Lasting for a long
period of time or marked by frequent recurrence.

Of the three levels of punishment chronicity

happens the most at ever age looked at (1-10). Some effects associated with using severe
chronicity are behavior problems like aggression and anger, alienation, lower academic
achievement and depression. Severity would be the different levels of pain from the punishments
that occur. The four that are mainly not accepted in society today are A) Slap on the face or head
B) Hit with a belt or object C) Pinched D) Spanked/slapped on the hand or leg. Shaking is
considered to be separate due to infants and shaken baby syndrome. The duration of each one is
looked at in terms of how long these happen throughout the childes adolescent years.

The above chart illustrates the percentage of parents using some specific acts of corporal
punishment and the age of the child in which they occur. As seen, for each age group there is
one punishment that stands out to make the most sense to use over the others. For example, for
the age group range 0-1 years old parents use a slap on the hand arm or leg. For ages 2-4 years
they use a spank on the bottom with the hand only. Ranges 5-8 years use a spank on the bottom
with a hand and followed closely after by .03% is threaten to spank. Ages 9-12 years is
threatening to spank. Finally, 13-17 years is threatening to spank as well. From this chart, take
away that in the years 1-8 physical use is used to correct a child. Then after the age of it seems
the child should know the difference between right and wrong so the use of force is not needed
but only threatened.
Demographics
Demographics play a huge role in corporal punishment. They help set the mind set of
what is acceptable and what is not. This might be why there is so must controversy over the
topic. Everybody is raised differently. Looking at the top seven independent variables the reader
will get a better understanding of why one may or may not choose to use CP. The seven
demographics are age of child, age of parent(s), single parent, socioeconomic status, ethic

group, gender of parent and child, region of living. (Straus, 1999) When looking into each
category there will be a trend noticed.
The peak age for Age vs. CP is 1-4 years (55%-90%), 5-9 years (60%-85%), 10+ (20%60%). (Gershoff, 2013) The Age of Parent vs. number of times a year using CP is 18-29 years
(17.1 times/year), 30-39 years (12.6 times/year), 40+ (9.1 times/year). (Gershoff, 2013) A side
note also found in the research is that the younger the parent the more prevalence for corporal
punishment. For socioeconomic status it is observed that the higher the socioeconomic status
the less corporal punishment will be used. The opposite can also be said that the lower the
socioeconomic status the more corporal punishment will occur. (MacKenzie, 2015) When
looking into ethnic groups there was no difference except when looking at the percentage of
single parents which was the highest among African American unmarried mothers reaching 77%.
(Nicklas, 2015)
For the children the charts show that Boys vs. Girls of all age, boys are 65%-85% more
likely to receive CP. (Wadfogel, 2013) Mothers vs. Fathers using corporal punishment shows
that mothers are 58%-64% more likely to use these punishments. The age groups for receiving
this are 9-12 years of age and the same amount of boys and girls are affected. (Wadfogel, 2013)
As the reader may notice these are a lot of things to consider and not all of the independent
variables are listed that may effected how corporal punishment is being used and if it is safe and
worth it for the children.
Positive and Negative Effects of Corporal Punishment
There are positive and negative effects to any issue being discussed. This will be a
breakdown of the positive and negative effects not only short term with non-compliance but also
lone-term with non-compliance. Many people feel that spanking is ineffective and can be if not
done under the correct circumstances. Spanking is ineffective if it fails to adhere to the
conditions that behaviorists say must exist for punishment to be effective, namely, that it be

immediate, consistent, and delivered after every instance of the targeted behavior. (Hineline and
Rosales-Ruiz 2012)
One negative effect for short term compliance is that using Corporal punishment in the
home isnt effective in most cases because it is inconsistent when out in public. Observers in
public are more likely to judge using these methods which makes parent(s) less likely to use
them outside the house hold. (Robert and Powers 1990) This makes us Corporal punishment
pointless because you are not being effective, consistent or delivering every instance of the
targeted behavior. A positive effect for short term non-compliance was used in a study using 30
commands by mothers on their children. The study showed that when using 30 commands by
mothers, children were more likely to comply with mothers using spanking instead of time-outs.
(Gershoff, 2002)
For long-term non-compliance for Corporal Punishment there was mainly negative
effects when reading the articles. Spanking 1-5 year olds increased aggression in sort bursts that
didnt last long term. (Gershoff, 2002) The child would be upset instantly from the punishment
but within a year of the same type of punishment it had negative effects on behavior. During the
rest of the adolescents years there is an increase of delinquent behavior. Also, a start to a
negative parent-child relationship and an increased risk of physical abuse. (Durrant, 2006)
There are also effects later in life such as spanking equals less long term compliance and
evidence of conscience. (Grogan-Kaylor 2013) Increased risk of health problems may arise and
a path for criminal adult behavior.

Work Cited
Frechette, S., Zoratti, M., & Romano, E. (2015). What Is the Link Between Corporal Punishment
and Child Physical Abuse?. Journal Of Family Violence, 30(2), 135-148

Gershoff, E. T. (2013). Spanking and Child Development: We Know Enough Now to Stop
Hitting Our Children. Child Development Perspectives, 7(3), 133-137.
International Business, T. (October 21, 2013). Spanking Makes Children Behave Badly Later:
Study. International Business Times.
MacKenzie, M. m., Nicklas, E., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Waldfogel, J. (2015). Spanking and
Children's Externalizing Behavior Across the First Decade of Life: Evidence for
Transactional Processes. Journal Of Youth & Adolescence, 44(3), 658-669.
Perron, J. L., Lee, C. M., LaRoche, K. J., Chan, K., Ateah, C., & Clment, M. (2014). Child and
Parent Characteristics Associated With Canadian Parents Reports of
Spanking. Canadian Journal Of Community Mental Health, 31-45.
Straus, M. A., & Stewart, J. H. (1999). Corporal punishment by American parents: national data
on prevalence, chronicity, severity, and duration, in relation to child and family
characteristics. Clinical Child And Family Psychology Review, 55-70.