CBS News Health. (2005, November,9). Can spanking cause aggression? Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/14/health/webmd/main1042550.shtml.
We had talked in class about spanking causing aggression in young children. I found an article that makes a lot of sense to me. Spanking can cause aggression in children because it causes them to be more anxious and angry. This only holds true though when these children live in countries where punishment is seen to be uncommon and bad. For instance, in Thailand discipline and punishment are bad and looked poorly upon therefor spanking causes high aggression in kids. Kenya on the other hand, is a country where punishment is acceptable therefor spanking causes little aggression if any.
Spanking also depends on the children' s feelings. If the childs friends are also being spanked no aggression is caused. If a child thinks they are the only one being spanked then it does not seem fair, and aggression rises.
This study asked the mother's of children ages 6-17 how often they physically abused their children. The aggression of the children was then measured. This was done in five different countries therefor using five separate cultures. I think this study should have been done also with younger aged children, like age 2 and up. I believe this because it is said that children start learning aggression at a very young age. If there had been a lot of aggression before the age of 6 then the children are more likely to be aggressive by six years of age.
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I am really glad that you found an article to discuss about spanking! I was spanked when I was younger and my parents would then send me to time out, then after that discuss why they did it and we would all appologize and hug. I think that spanking can be good if done the right way. But kids who get spanked and never get to talk about it and the family is cold, that could lead to aggression because they feel angry and hurt. I agree with the study being done with even younger children because aggression does emerge in younger kids too. What about different types of abuse? Spanking can be seen as mild abuse, or not abuse at all. I do not consider it abuse if it is done in a certain way- with explanation of why the parents are doing it and then hugging and love after it is over with and everyone has learned from it.
ReplyDeleteI find this very interesting. I can see how spanking can make children think that they should deal with problems with violence, as that is basically what their parents are doing when they are spanking.
ReplyDeleteI was spanked as a child and I think that at the time it may have made me think that aggression and violence was ok. I also remember getting aggressive with my parents when they disciplined me this way because I thought that they were being mean.
I don't necessarily think that it left any long-term aggression issues though. I don't think of myself as an overly aggressive person. It would be interesting to look at the short term vs the long term effects of spanking.
I agree with Kirby and Megan in that if the only form of conflict resolution you know is aggression (spanking). Then of course that's how you are going to retaliate. I also think that as you grow and learn, aggression or at least physical aggression eventually becomes an obsolete form of conflict resolution.
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