Spanking is a furiously debated issue and one that may begin for you in these early years. Parents, both for and against the practice, herald research and quote childrearing experts who support their position. I've met parents who are militant in their stance and condemn others for opposing views.

As a speaker, I've been criticized by a few audience members because I didn't tell parents to spank as an act of love and godly parenting. Some Christian parents claim the Bible commands them to spank, while others believe less physical methods are equally loving and appropriate. Research is confusing; advice is conflicting. Who and what does a parent believe?

One reason people argue for spanking is that it is seen as an acceptable way to teach children not to do things, to stop them when they're being annoying, and to encourage them to behave in appropriate ways. It's been documented that the southern United States practices spanking more than other areas, and some cultures do it more than others do. Obviously, just as there's no one right way to raise a child, there's no one right way to correct a child. I came to my own decision regarding this discipline method, and you must too. 

There's a little information from both sides of the argument presented here. Maybe this will drive your curiosity to research the issue and make a decision you can live with.

In The First Three Years of Life, researcher and author Burton L. White, PhD, asserts, "There is no evidence that children who have been spanked (not abused) when they are young become either aggressive older children or abusive parents."¹ The long-term research needed to test that theory, says White, hasn't been done. Psychologist and author of The Strong-Willed Child, Dr. James Dobson, agrees. He says it is nonsense that "specialists" claim spanking makes kids more violent and teaches them to hit others. White says, "Two-thirds of the successful families we have observed from all levels of society have used occasional mild physical punishment with their children after they entered the second year."² Yet, both caution parents on the use of spanking. Dobson recommends reserving this response for a child's "willful defiance."

In May 1995, Parents magazine published a persuasive article, "What's Wrong with Spanking?" The writer referred to Benjamin Franklin's famous line "Spare the rod, spoil the child" as a "mentality," declaring her uneasiness with spanking. She could not "in good conscience endorse it as a loving and caring discipline method."³

Several years ago, the American Medical Association (AMA) released a study by Murray Straus, PhD, codirector of the Family Research Laboratory, University of New Hampshire, Durham. Depending on how you read his study, you can come to different conclusions.

Dr. Straus suggests that if parents reduce or eliminate spanking it "could have major benefits for children and reduce anti-social behavior in the society."⁴

However, he admits that frequent spanking doesn't necessarily lead to anti-social behavior; that would be like saying that frequent smoking always leads to death from a smoking-related disease. Dr. Straus concludes with, "Corporal punishment is associated with an increased probability of societal violence," but "even if all parents stopped hitting their children, it would not mean the end of violence."⁵ So agrees Dr. Sal Severe, author of How to Behave So Your Children Will, Too! He devotes chapter 18 to enabling the parent to "evaluate the practice of spanking," but cautions its use. To read more, check out "The Debate over Spanking" published online at the Clearinghouse on Early Childhood and Parenting, http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/1997/ramsbu97.html.