April 19, 2021 – Rare is the parent who has never thought of beating up an unruly child. However, a new study offers another reason to avoid corporal punishment: beating can cause changes in the same areas of a child’s brain that are subject to more severe physical and sexual abuse.
Previous research has consistently found links between spanking and behavior problems, aggression, depression and anxiety, says Jorge Cuartas, a PhD student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and lead author of the study. “We wanted to investigate a possible mechanism, brain development, that could explain how physical punishment can affect children’s behavior and cognitive development.”
The study, published in Child Development, used functional MRIs to map brain changes in 147 tweens who had never experienced physical or sexual abuse. The researchers tracked which parts of the children’s brains were activated in response to neutral or fearful facial expressions. When pictures were shown of someone who looked scared, children who said they had been beaten reacted more strongly in certain parts of the brain than children who hadn’t. These areas control the reaction to environmental influences, recognize threats and react to them. When a child’s brain overreacts, behavior disorders can result.
“We saw these changes in the same areas as more serious forms of abuse or domestic violence. This suggests that the difference is more of a degree than a typical one, ”says Cuartas. As for a child’s brain, “It’s all violence.”
This is a significant finding as many parents do not consider spanking to be violent, says Dr. Vincent J. Palusci, pediatrician and editor-in-chief of Child Maltreatment magazine. “We want to raise children who are happy and healthy. And many parents who use beating do so with that aim. “
Corporal punishment in the United States
62 states and countries around the world have banned corporal punishment. While the U.S. lacks such protection, both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association have condemned the practice. The acceptance of beating seems to be on the decline: the percentage of parents in this country who say they beat up their children is falling. In 1993, 50% of parents surveyed said they did, but by 2017 that number had dropped to 35%. Still far too many, say Cuartas and Palusci, but a promising trend.
“While we as parents don’t want to hurt our children,” says Palusci, “we have to understand that beatings can be just as bad as things we would never do.”
Discipline versus punishment
Some parents may need to change their thinking and differentiate between discipline and punishment. “Discipline changes behavior – it conveys positive behavior, empathy and essential social skills. But that’s different from punishment, ”says Cuartas. “That makes someone painful or embarrassing. We need to start thinking about spanking as a punishment. “
South Carolina law still allows * public schools * to impose corporal punishment. I remember teachers and principals talking about it in funny ways, and my headmaster even kept a liaison paddle in his office. I’ve never used it, but I was wondering. https://t.co/Jb6OQ0ZpIj
– brutal south (@Paul_Bowers) April 19, 2021
This can be difficult, especially for adults who have been beaten up themselves. They may believe that corporal punishment must be okay too, since they have been found to be good. But the study doesn’t suggest that every child who is beaten up will have these difficulties – it just shows they happen, Cuartas says. “Compare that to smoking. We all know someone who smokes and is healthy, but that doesn’t mean smoking is good, ”he says. “Individual cases are not enough to understand whether certain experiences are good or bad.”
Palusci draws parallels with the advice pregnant women receive about taking medication: unless specifically tested in pregnancy, no amount can be considered safe. “We don’t have the studies to say how much beating is dangerous, so we have to think any lot has that potential.”
WebMD Health News
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Child development: “Corporal punishment and increased neural response to threats in children.”
Jorge Cuartas, PhD student at Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Vincent J. Palusci, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Ending violence against children: “Progress”, “US Country Report”.
American Academy of Pediatrics: “Where We Stand: Corporal Punishment.”
American Psychological Association: “Physical discipline is harmful and ineffective.”
JAMA Pediatrics: “Prevalence of corporal punishment in US samples of 35-year-old parents from 1993 to 2017.”
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