8 Reasons Not To Spank Your Kids

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Research suggests that spanking is ineffective

“You cannot punish out these behaviors that you do not want,”  Yale University psychology professor and director of the Yale Parenting Center and Child Conduct Clinic, Dr. Alan Katz tells the APA. “There is no need for corporal punishment based on the research. We are not giving up an effective technique. We are saying this is a horrible thing that does not work.”

It’s easy to blur the lines

Spanking as a means of discipline can become dangerous when emotions are running high and stress is looming. In instances where parents wait until they’re angry or completely frustrated to spank their children, there is always the chance that the discipline can cross over into abusive territory as parents sometimes temporarily become unaware of their own strength.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against it

In 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics reached the conclusion that spanking does more harm than good when it comes to the development of children. “One of the most important relationships we all have is the relationship between ourselves and our parents, and it makes sense to eliminate or limit fear and violence in that loving relationship,” said Dr. Robert D. Sege, a pediatrician at Tufts Medical Center, according to the New York Times.

Spanking is linked to depression and anxiety

A University of Michigan study found that childhood spanking can lead to a variety of mental health disorders including depression and anxiety. Spankings were also linked to suicide attempts.

“In childhood, parental use of spanking was associated with low moral internalization, aggression, antisocial behavior, externalizing behavior problems, internalizing behavior problems, mental health problems, negative parent-child relationships, impaired cognitive ability, low self-esteem, and risk of physical abuse from parents,” the study explained. “In adulthood, prior experiences of parental use of spanking were significantly associated with adult anti-social behavior, adult mental health problems and with positive attitudes about spanking.”

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Spanking is linked to decreased cognitive ability and self-control

A study from the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma found that spanking was linked to lower cognitive ability and decreased grey matter. “The more gray matter you have in the decision-making, thought-processing part of your brain (the prefrontal cortex), the better your ability to evaluate rewards and consequences,” the authors of a 2011 study published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience explained, according to CNN. In other words, science suggests that hitting kids for their lack of self-control leads to even less self-control.

There’s no lesson learned

At the end of the day, our job as parents is to teach our children how to be good people. “There’s no study that I’ve ever done that’s found a positive consequence of spanking,” Gershoff told CNN. “Most of us will stop what we’re doing if somebody hits us, but that doesn’t mean we’ve learned why somebody hit us, or what we should be doing instead, which is the real motive behind discipline.”