Spanking

Perhaps no topic generates as much heated debate among parents and child development experts as corporal punishment. While defenders argue for the continued necessity of the practice, new research shows more clearly the benefits of sparing the rod and avoiding corporal punishment altogether.

These studies cite numerous reasons against corporal punishment, from increasing aggression in children to the practice's moral repugnance. This paper, however, focuses on studies that show corporal punishment as an ineffective way to address misbehavior. In fact, numerous studies have shown that practices like spanking or slapping do not address the reasons behind a child's unwanted behavior.

In fact, a parent who spanks a child may unwittingly reinforce a child's bad behavior.

Types of corporal punishment

Part of the difficulty in addressing this issue lies in the lack of a common definition of spanking or corporal punishment. Some school districts, for example, equate corporal punishment with...
[ View Full Essay]