AUSTIN, Texas — A conclusive narrative review has found physical punishment of children is not effective in preventing child behavior problems or promoting positive outcomes and instead predicts increases in behavior problems and other poor outcomes over time. The study by an international group of scientists including a researcher from The University of Texas at Austin was published today in The Lancet.
Caregivers in many parts of the world use physical punishment as a response to children’s perceived misbehavior: 63% of children between the ages of 2 and 4 worldwide – approximately 250 million children – are regularly subjected to physical punishment by caregivers.
Sixty-two countries have banned the practice, which is increasingly seen as a form of violence.
The team looked at studies involving physical punishment such as spanking and excluded any behaviors that could constitute child physical abuse. The researchers found ample evidence to support a United Nations statement from the Committee on the Rights of the Child that recommended countries end the use of all types of physical punishment on children.
“There is no evidence that physical punishment is good for children,” said Elizabeth Gershoff, the Amy Johnson McLaughlin Centennial Professor in Human Development and Family Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin and senior author of the paper. “All the evidence indicates that physical punishment is harmful to children’s development and well-being.”
The review looked at 69 studies, most of which were from the United States, with eight from other countries. Scientists found that physical punishment was not associated with any positive outcomes for children and increased the risk that children would experience severe violence or neglect. The paper points out that negative outcomes associated with physical punishment, such as behavior problems, occurred no matter the child’s sex, race, or ethnicity and regardless of the overall parenting styles of the caregivers. The authors also found evidence that the magnitude of negative outcomes for children increased the more frequently physical punishment was used.
“Parents hit their children because they think doing so will improve their behavior,” Gershoff said. “Unfortunately for parents who hit, our research found clear and compelling evidence that physical punishment does not improve children’s behavior and instead makes it worse.”
In the U.S., it is legal in all 50 states for parents to use physical punishment. It is also legal in 19 states for schools to use physical punishment against children. The paper was intended as a resource for policymakers and people who work with families, such as medical and mental health providers.
Gershoff previously authored a landmark 2016 meta-analysis of dozens of studies and found that physical punishment was not associated with any positive outcomes for children and was heavily associated with a variety of negative outcomes. Gershoff’s work was cited by former Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. in a 2016 federal letter urging states to consider ending the use of physical punishment in schools. Gershoff also helped to inform policy statements from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association that use research on the harmful effects of physical punishment as a basis for recommending that caregivers no longer use it.
Heilmann, Anita Mehay, Richard G. Watt and Yvonne Kelly of University College London (U.K.); Joan E. Durrant of the University of Manitoba (Canada); and Jillian van Turnhout, former senator, Irish Parliament, also contributed to the research. The research was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the U.K. Economic and Social Research Council.
Lots of adults can recall being spanked as children. In fact, international data suggest that most kids have been spanked, close to 300 million worldwide (UNICEF, 2017). Spanking has been defined as open-handed hitting that does not injure a child and is typically done with the intention of modifying the child’s bad behavior (Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, 2016). Spanking as a parent’s main form of punishment was common for decades or even centuries and was based on the rationale that being spanked isn’t harmful to children, and that it can, in fact, be beneficial by helping change children’s bad behaviors.
After years of commonsense appeal, ideas about spanking have changed dramatically in the past two decades. In 1998, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) wrote a statement for the first time discouraging parents from spanking their children as a method of punishment. This month, they’ve updated their policy again, now recommending that parents do not spank their children at all.
Why the change? Before the 1990s, physical punishment was the accepted method for disciplining children around the world and was generally thought of as distinct from physical abuse. Around that time, research suggesting that physical punishment had negative consequences for both children’s behavior and their emotional health started accumulating. Now the research overwhelmingly confirms these early findings, leading to the AAP’s change in policy.
Two important findings have guided these policy changes. First, research suggests that spanking isn’t actually effective in stopping children from engaging in disruptive behaviors. In terms of getting kids to do what you ask them to in the short term, spanking might cause a problem behavior to stop momentarily, but it is no more effective than other non-violent methods, like a timeout.
Most importantly, in the long term, spanking is associated with less compliance than other forms of discipline (Gershoff, 2013). Spanking likely doesn’t work as a form of punishment, because it causes physical pain, leading to fear and confusion in children, which could, in turn, interfere when the child is trying to learn the rule or message that a parent is attempting to convey (Gershoff, 2013). Further, when spanking is used to get children to stop behaving aggressively—to stop hitting other kids, for example—it is not only ineffective as a method of punishment, but it actually backfires.
This leads us to the second important research finding that led to the AAP’s new policy: Spanking has been linked to increases in negative behaviors, such as physical aggression. In a large meta-analysis of 14 different studies on the effects of spanking on children, researchers found a consistent relationship between spanking and aggressive behavior (Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, 2016).
You could argue from some of this research that spanking doesn’t lead to aggression and that, instead, aggressive kids are just more likely to be spanked. However, another long-term study of over 12,000 children across the country reported that children who were spanked at age 5 were more likely to act aggressively at ages 6 and 8. This study suggests that spanking precedes the aggressive behavior problems seen in children. Further, these researchers controlled for the number of behavior problems that children had, meaning that the link between spanking and aggression was independent of whether or not the kids were particularly difficult or defiant (Gershoff, Sattler, & Ansari, 2018).
Why does spanking lead to more aggressive behavior? The answer is simple: By watching parents hit, children are likely learning that hitting is acceptable behavior and a permissible form of punishment. On top of that, we already know from more than 50 years of research that watching others behave aggressively can cause children to behave more aggressively as well (e.g., Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1963). So despite the fact that it took a while to get here, perhaps these findings shouldn’t be very surprising.
On top of leading to more aggressive behavior in children, spanking is also associated with more mental health problems, lower self-esteem, cognitive difficulties, and more negative relationships between children and their parents (Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, 2016). Harsh corporal punishment has even been associated with problems in brain development (Tomoda et al., 2009). Yelling, verbal abuse, and shaming have been associated with similar outcomes.
Based on this research, policymakers like the AAP from around the world are also changing their views on spanking. Only a few days ago, French parliament members voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill that would ban parents from smacking their kids. Very recent research has suggested that policy changes banning corporal punishment have been associated with positive changes in children’s behavior: In a study that documented children’s behavior in 88 different countries after corporal punishment was banned, researchers reported that these bans were associated with less frequent physical fighting in both adolescent girls and boys. Countries that banned corporal punishment in school, but not in the home, showed some lessening of physical fighting in children, but only in girls (Elgar et al., 2018).
Although this research suggests that spanking is not an appropriate form of discipline, there are alternative methods for modifying children’s bad behavior. The AAP is encouraging forms of discipline that include rewarding positive behaviors and removing rewards as a main form of punishment. For example, a refusal to eat dinner could result in the loss of dessert. Likewise, grabbing toys away from a sibling could result in the loss of those toys.
Some parents use time-outs, isolating the child from a desired activity for some period of time, while others are now using time-ins, where the parent stays with the child to talk about his or her transgression. The ultimate goal of discipline is to teach the child something about appropriate and inappropriate behavior, so it is important to be consistent and to follow through so that children come to learn the consequences of inappropriate behavior and start to internalize rules.
Altogether, this work has a very clear message: Parents shouldn’t spank their kids. While countless studies now show that physical punishment leads to negative outcomes, not a single study to date shows that physical punishment is associated with anything positive for children (Durrant, 2012).
I’ve heard people push back when they hear this, saying things like, “I was spanked, and I turned out fine,” or “It really depends on the kid.” Sure, maybe some kids who are spanked are fine, and perhaps some kids are more likely to be fine than others, but these arguments ignore a great deal of research demonstrating that a lot of kids who are spanked are not fine. The bottom line is that we now have overwhelming evidence that spanking is not an effective strategy for changing children’s bad behavior, and that it can, in fact, cause long-term damage to a child’s well-being.
One final thought: Does the fact that we now know we shouldn’t spank our children mean that we should hold something against our own parents for spanking us? Not necessarily. When thinking about this question, it’s important to remember that before the 1990s, spanking was the well-accepted method that most parents used to discipline their children. The research that we have now—the research that I’m telling you about here—wasn’t available to them.
Unfortunately, science moves very slowly, but now that we have overwhelming evidence that we shouldn’t spank, we can use that evidence to improve our parenting skills. There’s a lot we know now that we didn’t know 20 years ago—we know that rear-facing car seats are good, putting newborns to sleep on their stomachs could be bad, and breastmilk is likely better than formula—and we’ll know more 20 years from now than we do today.
The best we can do is use the science we have now to help us become better parents. As we learn more, we can do more, and work to create more positive outcomes for our children with each generation.
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References
Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1963). Imitation of film-mediated aggressive models. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66, 3-11.
Elgar, F. J., Donnelly, P. D., Michaelson, V., Gariépy, G., Riehm, K. E., Walsh, S. D., & Pickett, W. (2018). Corporal punishment bans and physical fighting in adolescents: an ecological study of 88 countries. BMJ open, 8(9), e021616.
Durrant, J., & Ensom, R. (2012). Physical punishment of children: lessons from 20 years of research. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 184, 1373-1377.
Gershoff, E. T., & Grogan-Kaylor, A. (2016). Spanking and child outcomes: Old controversies and new meta-analyses. Journal of Family Psychology, 30, 453-469.
Gershoff, E. T. (2013). Spanking and child development: We know enough now to stop hitting our children. Child development perspectives, 7, 133-137.
Gershoff, E. T., Sattler, K. M., & Ansari, A. (2018). Strengthening Causal Estimates for Links Between Spanking and Children’s Externalizing Behavior Problems. Psychological Science, 29, 110-120.
Tomoda, A., Suzuki, H., Rabi, K., Sheu, Y. S., Polcari, A., & Teicher, M. H. (2009). Reduced prefrontal cortical gray matter volume in young adults exposed to harsh corporal punishment. Neuroimage, 47, T66-T71.