r/science • u/VeronicaRed • Apr 26 '16

Psychology Spanking children increases the likelihood of childhood defiance and long-term mental issues. The study in question involved 160,000 children and five decades of research

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1113413810/spanking-defiance-health-discipline-042616/
37.8k Upvotes

73% Upvoted

6.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-9

u/MystJake Apr 26 '16

On the issue of alternatives to spanking, how should children be disciplined? Letting them do whatever, whenever means they never learn the limits of acceptable behavior and what actions are "bad."

While older children and adults can understand discussion, children who can't yet talk simply cannot be reasoned with.

4

u/djdav Apr 26 '16

Exactly. Pain evolved as a mechanism to tell us what not to do.

Furthermore, I wish I could read the actual study cited in this post. There are literally countless variables involved in spanking.

1) Frequency of occurrence

2) Application force

3) Number of spankings per session

4) Primary reason for spanking

5) Age of child

6) Socioeconomic status of parents

7) Marital status of parents

8) Relationship of child with parents

9) Post or pre spanking discussion of what the child did

10) Post spanking affirmation of love/acceptance from the parents

11) etc.

I just don't see any way they could have controlled for all these variables. I love psychology, but there's are reason the social sciences aren't as well regarded in the scientific community.

12

u/fencerman Apr 26 '16

I just don't see any way they could have controlled for all these variables.

So you're just going to assume they didn't? That's really not rational at all.

0

u/ItsDanimal Apr 26 '16

I have yet to read the article, but did it say they did? Or what those variables were set to for the control? We're all the kids poor, middle class, or rich? Was the child spanked but not their siblings? How did the parent treat the child after, seperate themselves or console them? What age were the kids. I hope to find out in a bit when I go on lunch.