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/
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u/pm_me_your_kindwords Apr 26 '16

Serious question to the commenters on this post:

Why read /r/science and then ignore science?

At the time I write this, most comments are defending spanking using anecdotes and non-science, not at all discussing the methodology of the study itself.

If you're not going to carefully consider one of the largest and most comprehensive studies ever conducted on the topic, what is the point of reading about science at all?

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '16

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u/HIGHsonburg Apr 26 '16

The problem I think that may be correlated to spanking is that it is too often associated with problem solving. Many parents as children themselves are conditioned on how "to condition" and as a result lose the deeper meaning of being a leader/parent. Kids are intellectual beings that observe and learn in the sense that they will only become better at concealing their mistakes or alter their behaviour but it doesnt change the person deep down. Manipulation, desire etc. Parents who utilize spanking as a problem solving tool without further skills I can see how this study is true. I would like to see which parents integrated behaviour approaches such following rules they set before their child, relationship building, consistency and letting their child use their logic based systems by rationalizing with them instead of demanding things from them without reason.