I read these editorials last night and found them interesting:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/op...buse.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/op...ild-abuse.html
I found this one particularly interesting, since I didn't know what the context for corporal punishment in the African American community was before reading it. Having looked at the comments, some people are getting the idea that the author thinks this is mainly an African American issue, but I didn't get that idea at all because I know this is widespread among a variety of cultures.
Dr. Phil, this is from the second article you posted:
Quote:
SIEGEL: You say the majority of parents physically punish their children about once a year. How much does that practice vary by race, region, education level, class - whatever?
GERSHOFF: It varies a fair amount. We know that it varies by race or ethnic group. African-American parents, in particular, spank more often than other groups. Whites and Latinos spank about the same. And Asian-Americans spank the least.
What we do also know is that there are not differences in the effects of spanking on children by race or ethnic group. And so with a large national sample, we found that even though African-American parents do spank more often, it's not more effective at increasing children's positive behavior and in fact has the opposite effect and increases children's aggressive behavior over time.
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Quote:
SIEGEL: There are lots of people today who are parents who were disciplined by their parents by being beaten and consider it normal and therefore beat their children.
GERSHOFF: That's true. We do see that cycle of violence continuing through generations. Our own parents are our best example for how to parent. We live with our parents for many years. And that's the most close-up view of parenting we've ever seen. But there are many parents who are breaking that cycle and realizing that it is possible to raise children without hitting them. And that in fact if you don't hit them, you can raise perfectly good and perhaps even more well-behaved children who don't have the mental-health problems and behavior problems that are often associated with frequent spanking.
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I think this is important. Many people use corporal punishment, but increasing its frequency is not effective and can have some very negative consequences on the psychological well-being of children. This is what I would expect. Overall I think that positive reinforcement is a better way to train someone than to punish them. I haven't read up on all the studies, but that's what I've observed in my life.
And if using corporal punishment as frequently as it is used is not effective and can have very negative potential consequences, then I would hope that this situation being brought to light can foster some enlightened conversations and could encourage people to make some changes on a personal and cultural level so that parents are no longer encouraged to punish their children in potentially counterproductive ways. As we become more knowledgeable, we evolve over time and shape our culture. I don't think it's necessary to hold on to things that aren't as effective as they were once thought to be, especially if they have the potential to be pretty harmful.