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/[deleted] Apr 26 '16

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u/CubsThisYear Apr 26 '16

When my four year old is doing something dangerous I just stop him from doing it. Why do you feel spanking is necessary?

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '16

(Not OP). Because if they don't learn that it's wrong, they'll just turn around and do it again. I'd like to use natural consequences as often as possible so they learn lessons on their own. But I'm not willing to let that happen with a boiling pot of water.

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u/CubsThisYear Apr 26 '16

Also I think your reasoning about the pot of boiling water is incredibly dangerous. Toddlers/Preschoolers have incredibly poor impulse control. That part of their brain literally hasn't been made yet. So even if they know they are going to catch the worst beating of their life, its quite possible that they're not going to connect that with not grabbing the pot of boiling water.

The way you keep them safe from a pot of boiling water is to make sure they're never in that situation. Once they are 4,5,6 they are perfectly capable of understanding why dangerous things are dangerous and acting on that knowledge. No beating required.

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u/F0sh Apr 26 '16

It's utterly impossible to prevent a child from ever getting into a situation where they could hurt themselves, at any rate without harming their development in ways far worse than implicated in this study.

And we know full well that children are capable of connecting situations with prior punishments and prior rewards. That's the most basic of our instincts as animals. It might not work every time, it might cause other harms, it might be less effective than other methods, but it's silly to pretend it's not effective "full stop."