Spanking, the discipline technique that many of us remember as children is back in the research journals. Michael MacKenzie et. al. looked at spanking and later effects on cognition and aggression.
In the October 2013 edition of the Journal
Pediatrics,
the authors noted that children that were spanked were more likely to exhibit aggressive behaviors at age 9 and older. They also noted that these children suffered from reduce cognitive function, primarily receptive language skills.
The United States remains one of the world's developed countries that still condones spanking. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a policy statement out against the practice of spanking for disciplinary purposes. Many European countries have banned spanking as a formal discipline practice.
The authors of this study took extra care to adjust for many confounding variables like socioeconomic status and maternal psychological health.
Disciplining a child effectively and consistently is very difficult and many parents do not have the necessary training to handle the early parenting years.
Thoughts:
1) One thing is for certain, counting to 10 and thinking always helps prevent a regrettable event.
2) Natural consequences are useful - for example, if your child leaves a favorite sleep animal downstairs only to have you retrieve for the 30th time, then it sleeps downstairs tonight and every night thereafter that it is not well cared for.
3) Positive rewards for good behavior - never food. Praise is an excellent motivator.
4) Consequences by removal - if your child does X, it is known that they will miss a family event, etc..
5) Distraction for toddlers - understand what is age appropriate and what is not. This can help with parental frustration.
Newsletters archives 29-32 focus on parenting.
Kids Health has some nice chapters on parenting toddlers and other ages. Visit the
site for more details.
