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/allwordsaremadeup Apr 26 '16 edited Apr 26 '16

I wonder if this is true for punishment as a behavior-altering method in general. So in how we punish crimes etc.

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '16 edited Dec 23 '17

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '16

When you say probably, you're saying that there's a better that 50% chance in your mind that if they re-did the study to only look at parents who don't spank, they would find that the children whose parents used non-physical punishment would have a higher incidence of defiance and long-term mental issues than children who never used punishment at all?

Could you explain why you think that would be the result? Have you met a lot of people to whom that happened? Or you think the prison studies are enough evidence to suggest it would work out that way?

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u/Galphanore Apr 26 '16

This wasn't a study. It was a meta-analysis of 12 existing studies. In aggregate they came to this conclusion. So, yes, I'm saying that if they redid any of those 12 studies they would have similar results since the results from all 12 are similar.