Does Spanking Lead Children to Become More Violent?

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To spank or not to spank a child has always been an argument and interesting topic in the area of child care and education for many years, in which parents and educators were involving. Some of them agree that spanking is an appropriate and effective form of parental discipline while some others believe that spanking children has many negative side effects (Kazdin & Benjet, 2003, p. 99). “In the United States, an investigation shows that 74% of parents of children 17 years of age or younger use spanking as a discipline technique; 94% of parents of 3 and 4-year-olds use as corporal punishment” (Kazdin & Benjet, 2003, p. 100). Anyhow, Weiten emphasized that even parents using a strenuous spanking, it might not be as effective as people presume. Besides that, non-physical punishment, such as withdrawal of privileges would have more possibility to achieve the goals of parental discipline (Weiten, 2010, p. 253). There might be some short-term advantages for applying corporal punishment, however, unexpected rebound of negative effects may occur after a longer period of time (Straus, 2001, p.54). According to Kazdin and Benjet, spanking was associated with poor quality of relationship between parents and children, worse mental health, decreased moral internalization, increased delinquency and sociopathic for children, and increased lawbreaker (Kazdin & Benjet, 2003, p. 101). Compared with those children who were not spanked, the children who were spanked were more irate, strained and hostile (Kazdin & Benjet, 2003, p. 102). Spanking, which considered as a corporal punishment, has been prohibited by many countries including the United States of America. Spanking a child by using any objects might causes physical harm and might turn into physical abuse (Kazdin & Benjet, 2003, p. 100). Furthermore, Murray A. Straus emphasized that using corporal
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