Prysical Punesmet

Physical
Disciplining a child is a necessary part of parenthood. Although physical, or corporal, punishment is illegal in places such as Sweden, it is commonly practiced in America. A 1999 survey led by Murray A. Straus and Julie H. Stewart, called "Corporal Punishment by American Parents," reported that 94 percent of parents have spanked their child by age three or four, and 50 percent stillspanked when the child was 13 years old. The survey also revealed that African-American and low-income parents were the most likely to use physical punishment. Although common, physical punishment does have negative lasting effects.
AGGRESSION
Physical punishment models aggression for children. According to Lynn Namka, EdD, physical punishment engenders more aggression in the child, even if itinitially appears to stop the behavior. Children cannot always understand the difference between unacceptable physical aggression for which they get punished, such as hitting and shoving, and the physical aggression they receive as punishment.
PHYSICAL ABUSE
Adolescents who receive physical punishment are three times more likely to grow up to abuse their own children, according to Straus. Thestudy by Straus found that 7 percent of never-spanked adolescents grow up to abuse their children, compared to 24 percent of those who were spanked. It should be noted, however, that the vast majority of people, whether or not they received physical punishment, are unlikely to abuse their children.
IMPAIRED COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Physical punishment has an impact on cognitive development. A 1998study by Murray A. Straus and Mallie J. Paschall, titled "Corporal Punishment by Mothers and Child's Cognitive Development," revealed that children who were spanked were less able to keep up with the cognitive development level expected for their age.

Over the past 20 years, a growing body of research clearly indicates that children who have experienced physical punishment tend to be moreaggressive toward parents, siblings, peers and, later, spouses, and are more likely to develop antisocial behaviour.

“Virtually without exception, these studies found that physical punishment was associated with higher levels of aggression against parents, siblings, peers and spouses,” write Dr. Joan Durrant, Department of Family Social Sciences, University of Manitoba, and Ron Ensom, Children’sHospital of Eastern Ontario.

In a trial of an intervention designed to reduce difficult behaviour in children, when parents in more than 500 families were trained to reduce their use of physical punishment, the difficult behaviours in the children also declined.

Physical punishment is also associated with a variety of mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety and use of drugs and alcohol.Physical punishment may change areas in the brain linked to performance on IQ tests and increase vulnerability to drug or alcohol dependence, as recent neuroimaging studies suggest.
In 29 countries1 around the world, it is illegal for a parent, teacher, or anyone else to spank a child, and 113 countries prohibit corporal punishment in schools. Yet in all of North America, physical punishment bya parent, as long as it is not severe, is still seen by many as necessary discipline, and condoned, or sadly, even encouraged.
For the past several years, many psychiatrists, sociological researchers, and parents have recommended that we seriously consider banning the physical punishment of children. The most important reason, according to Dr. Peter Newell, coordinator of the organization EndPunishment of Children (EPOCH)2, is that "all people have the right to protection of their physical integrity, and children are people too."3

1. Hitting children teaches them to become hitters themselves. Extensive research data is now available to support a direct correlation between corporal punishment in childhood and aggressive or violent behavior in the teenage and adult years. Virtually...