We spanked. I think I would spank less if I had to do over. But I have never been persuaded by the assertions of sociologists (one prominent one at UNH) that it was highly damaging. It is nice to see a researcher who does not start from his field's usual bias coming up with a different conclusion.
It doesn't make much difference either way. The usual difficulty with the data is that abusive parents are more often also spankers. That I can believe. When you take them out of the mix, the behavioral outcomes between children who are spanked and those who are not disappears. I oversimplify, but that's essentially it.
Abusive parents are also often non-spankers, if by abusive we mean parents who damage their children's ability to grow up happy and likely to form productive relationships with individuals and their society.
ReplyDeleteDitto what T99 writes. How can parents abuse? Let us count the ways.
ReplyDeleteObject lessons in moral cause/effect. We specified a list of things we would spank for, and if the offense didn't fit that list we did something else--no redefining the rules on the fly.
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