Summary: Researchers report spanking is related to lower social development of 3 to 4 year old children.
Source: University of Michigan.
Spanking may be increasingly harmful for children on a more global scale than previously known, a new University of Michigan study indicates.
Most research on how spanking affects children has involved studying families in high-income countries, such as the United States and Canada, but less was known about how spanking affects children in low- and middle-income countries–or developing countries.
Spanking is one of the most common forms of child discipline used by parents worldwide.
The new international research used data collected by UNICEF in 62 countries–representing nearly one-third of the world’s countries–and demonstrated that caregivers’ reports of spanking were related to lower social development among 215,885 3- and 4-year-old children.
A parent or caregiver was asked in person if the child gets along well with other children; if the child hits, kicks or bites others; and if the child gets distracted easily. The question about spanking concerned the physical discipline used within the last month with the child or their sibling.
One-third of the respondents indicated they believed physical punishment is necessary to bring up, raise or educate a child properly. Among the children studied, 43 percent were spanked, or resided in a home where another child was spanked.
A child’s social development suffered in both cases in which he or she was spanked or during times when a sibling had been spanked, the study showed.
“It appears that in this sample … spanking may do more harm than good,” said Garrett Pace, the study’s lead author and a doctoral student of social work and sociology.
Pace also noted that “reductions in corporal punishment might do a great deal to reduce the burden of children’s mental health and improve child development outcomes globally.”
More effort to create policies that discourage spanking has occurred globally. In fact, 54 countries have banned the use of corporal punishment, which can only benefit children’s well-being long term, Pace and colleagues said.
The study’s co-authors were Shawna Lee, associate professor of social work and faculty associate at the Institute for Social Research, and Andrew Grogan-Kaylor, associate professor of social work.
Source: Jared Wadley – University of Michigan
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Abstract for “Spanking and young children’s socioemotional development in low- and middle-income countries” by Garrett T. Pace, Shawna J. Lee, and Andrew Grogan-Kaylor in
doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.11.003
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]University of Michigan”Spanking in Developing Countries Does More Harm Than Good.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 19 November 2019.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/spanking-harm-psychology-10222/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]University of Michigan(2019, November 19). Spanking in Developing Countries Does More Harm Than Good. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved November 19, 2019 from https://neurosciencenews.com/spanking-harm-psychology-10222/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]University of Michigan”Spanking in Developing Countries Does More Harm Than Good.” https://neurosciencenews.com/spanking-harm-psychology-10222/ (accessed November 19, 2019).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]
Abstract
Spanking and young children’s socioemotional development in low- and middle-income countries
Spanking is one of the most common forms of child discipline used by parents around the world. Research on children in high-income countries has shown that parental spanking is associated with adverse child outcomes, yet less is known about how spanking is related to child well-being in low- and middle-income countries. This study uses data from 215,885 children in 62 countries from the fourth and fifth rounds of UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) to examine the relationship between spanking and child well-being. In this large international sample which includes data from nearly one-third of the world’s countries, 43% of children were spanked, or resided in a household where another child was spanked, in the past month. Results from multilevel models show that reports of spanking of children in the household were associated with lower scores on a 3-item socioemotional development index among 3- and 4-year-old children. Country-level results from the multilevel model showed 59 countries (95%) had a negative relationship between spanking and socioemotional development and 3 countries (5%) had a null relationship. Spanking was not associated with higher socioemotional development for children in any country. While the cross-sectional association between spanking and socioemotional development is small, findings suggest that spanking may be harmful for children on a more global scale than was previously known.
