On Mon, 11 Oct 1999, Sandra Price wrote:
> >From Mr. Jones' Psych in the New for this week.
>
> Canadian study links spanking to psychiatric disorders
> http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/991005/bbx.html
> (Yahoo News, October 5) Children spanked by their parents are twice
> as likely to develop drug and alcohol problems in adulthood,
> according to a Canadian study released on Tuesday. The study found
> that those who were spanked or slapped had increased rates of
> anxiety disorders, anti-social behavior and depression.
Well, I've always been a card-carrying bleeding-heart liberal on the
topic of spanking. My credentials: my two children survived childhood
without experiencing anything more traumatic than the occasional
time-out or loss of privileges, and were never spanked or slapped at
any time. I've also toed the party line in class, emphasizing how
physical punishment produces undesirable side-effects and models
violence.
But (here it comes, Martha) lately I've been questioning the adequacy
of the demonstrations of the harmful effects of physical punishment on
behaviour. Possibly I've been sensitized by Judith Rich Harris's point
that most (all?) of these studies are flawed by a failure to consider
that a genetic explanation is equally likely. Certainly, all the
studies I've seen which claim dire outcomes for spanking have this
flaw.
Take the above example, which undoubtedly leads people to conclude
that spanking causes children to grow up to be drug addicts,
alcoholics, and criminals. The author of the study, Harriet MacMillan,
herself is quoted as saying "She hopes her findings will
encourage parents to avoid spanking as a disciplinary tool". And a
lawyer is quoted in the news item as saying "The study reinforces what
parents need to hear--spanking is not good for children".
But the study shows nothing of the kind. It only shows a relation
between parents who spank and kids who turn out bad. It could be that
parents who have, say, genes disposing to aggression, pass them on to
their kids. The genes make the parents prone to spank, they make the
kids prone to go bad. Or perhaps the kids inherit out-of-control
tendencies which make the parents feel the need to use harsher
discipline. In that case, it's their bad tendencies which leads to
more spanking (and later poor outcomes), not the reverse.
BTW, the study was apparently retrospective, asking adults to report
on their level of physical punishment many years earlier. There's
further reason to be cautious here. It may well be that messed-up
adults feel more need to blame someone, and so remember higher levels
of physical punishment as children.
Once again, where's the 2 x 2 table? We need to know not only how many
spanked kids go wrong, but how many non-spanked go wrong as well. We
also need to know how many non-spanked still go wrong anyway. We also
know from recent twin studies that shared family experiences count
for surprisingly little in the socialization of children. We may not
like that conclusion (my students sure don't) but that's what the
evidence shows.
I might add that I am still in no way an advocate of physical
punishment. I find it morally unacceptable to hit kids, there are
effective alternatives, and hitting them sure doesn't make them like
you any better. But whether it causes lasting harm is another
question.
-Stephen
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Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC
J1M 1Z7
Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at:
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