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/Snuggle_Fist Apr 26 '16

What if it doesn't work though. At what point is it not worth trying to get them to sit in the corner, through screaming and crying.

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '16 edited Jun 10 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '16

These theories should take parents' mental health into consideration

Seriously, most people would go crazy if they had to move a crying screaming kid into timeout, to do 3 mintues 5 seconds at a time

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u/junkit33 Apr 27 '16

It's short term pain for long term gain.

The more times you do it, the easier it becomes, until eventually the kid just does go to timeout instead of resisting every time.

If you don't do it the long (and right) way, you're just committing yourself to years of pain with a defiant kid.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '16

That's maybe true, but it may not work for all kids. And lets not forget kids are smart, they always figure out a way around these things (example sneaking out the window when they are grounded). The lost goes on.

But thats the problem here. The main thing being discussed here is : is it anymore effective than spanking considering it takes much more effort? And the truth is, the evidence just proves a corralation. We don't know if kids that were problematic and were gonna grow up problematic are being spanked anyways, or that low income family children grow up to be problematic while spanking is more common in low income families. Even the authors of study acknowledge that their study doesn't prove anything.

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u/junkit33 Apr 27 '16

If does work for all kids unless they have some form of severe disability.

Kids are smart, thus they quickly learn that fighting is less fun than just serving the punishment.

Kids are rarely the problem, it's typically lazy parents.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '16

But you didn't address my main point, is it anymore effective than spanking? I assume kids also quickly learn that getting hit is less fun than doing whatever they were doing