There’s a new study out this week in which researchers claim physically punishing kids – hitting, shoving, grabbing or pushing them – leads to an increased likelihood of mental illness later in life.
It’s the latest shot in the “should you or shouldn’t you” debate over spanking, a parental controversy that has gotten increasingly emotional in the United States.
In this new research, published in the journal “Pediatrics,” a group of Canadian academics analyzed data collected from nearly 35,000 adult Americans who reported whether they were physically disciplined as children. Among those adults who reported harsh physical discipline – but not abuse – conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders and alcohol dependency were between 2 and 5 percent more common than among those who did not experience harsh corporal punishment; more complex psychiatric illnesses were 4 to 7 percent more common...
And overall, the study didn’t delve into a phenomenon that authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman explore in their influential book “NurtureShock:” That it’s not necessarily the fact of the spanking that matters, but how the spanking is done.
Bronson and Merryman looked at cross-ethnic and international research into spanking and found that when a culture views spanking as normal, then spanking does not cause later harm.
I'm sure with all of these things there is a happy medium somewhere. I got spanked and bloody loved it. Last bit wasn't true, but I did get a slap if I was very naughty. It didn't really hurt much but I knew my parents were really really pissed off at that point and would buck my ideas up afterwards. In the context of a caring and stable upbringing with two pretty cool parents then it wasn't really a cause for concern.
Contrast with some of the hyperactive fuckwitt mothers I see at our local park and there's no way you'd be telling them it's fine to hit their kids. Unfortunately state intervention would always have to assume the worst, and cater for the latter types.
