The Surprising Link between Power and Punishment in Discipline

Long thought to be an effective method of socializing small children, physical discipline has been exposed to be a predictor of a wide array of harmful developmental consequences. Physically punishing a child is attributed to an increase in childhood anger, rebellious behavior, lower academic accomplishments, poor parent-child bonding, mental health issues and decreased moral internalization. The experts are not in total agreement about whether physical punishment results in short-term compliance, while some studies show it does and others are inconclusive.

Difference Between Discipline And Corporal Punishment

Physical or corporal punishment is used to cause pain, but not injury. It is done for control or to correct an undesirable behavior. Although researchers find it difficult to distinguish a difference between abuse and corporal punishment, there is no general line of division. Abusive and non-abusive parents differ in how often and how severely they will physically punish a youngster and whether or not the behavior is used to reprimand a child.

Discipline is used for guiding a child’s moral, emotional and physical development. It allows parents to help their child take responsibility for themselves when they are older. Discipline involves teaching a child what is right and wrong and it makes them aware of the values and actions that are acceptable. Positive discipline involves helping a young child to understand why certain behavior is acceptable and other behaviors are not. Negative discipline tends to focus more on doing what you’re told in order to avoid something unpleasant happening.

To use power-assertive discipline methods following a child’s inappropriate behavior means following it up with a negative consequence such as smacking, threatening, taking away privileges, etc. without any actual explanation. Inductive discipline means setting limits and using logical consequences, reasoning and explanation to guide a child.

Corporal Punishment And Social Behavior

Corporal punishment is associated with an increase in childhood aggression and other antisocial behaviors towards adults, peers and siblings. It may legitimize violence in children especially in interpersonal relationships, because they internalize things. Ironically, it’s the behavior parents most want to prevent or deter that wind up becoming strengthened. If a parent attempts to modify a child’s behavior through inflicting physical pain, the child will most likely wind up doing the same to others when they want to get a certain reaction.

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How Spanking Affects The Parent-Child Relationship

The main concern with the attachment theory is that using physical punishment can have a detrimental effect on the quality of a relationship between a parent and child. A child’s bond with a parent is fostered by warm and positive parenting, children who interact negatively with a parent are more likely to grow up insecure and aggressive. There have been a number of different research studies that showed physical punishment had a negative association with the parent-child bond.

Maternal depression has the biggest impact on the parent-child bond, followed closely by negative interactions, frequency of spankings and relationship stress. When a new mother is stressed and/or depressed, it may lead to an increase in spanking and negative mother-baby interactions.

Mental Health Consequences

Less frequently than external behavior, but equally as important, is the development of internal mental health issues related to physical punishment and these include suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety, and other issues. Many times, these types of issues are not addressed and treated, leading to lifelong issues, such as influencing the parenting abilities of the next generation.

The effects of parental discipline on depression was mediated by low self-esteem in Anglo children, but not Asians. Interestingly, punitive discipline also had a more negative effect on internalizing behaviors in female than male children.

Culture And Ethnicity

There has been a lot of research done on the relationship between ethnicity, aspects of parenting and discipline and the outcome it has on children. The aspects of discipline and physical punishment will vary across social and cultural lines. Punishment has different meanings in some cultural groups and the parent-child relationship is another important aspect. Discipline is looked upon as culturally acceptable and is a sign of good parenting skills and therefore the effects of it are positive.

There are also however, some other confounding factors with ethnicity such as poverty, low social status and the risks associated with living in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Generally, extremely harsh discipline that borders on physical abuse is equally deleterious for all children, no matter what culture they come from. The negative effects of corporal punishment have been witnessed across cultures.

Summary

The use of corporal punishment is deeply rooted in our culture and history, but it is clearly a preventable health risk for children. Physical punishment does not necessarily mean a harmful effect, but the more that a child is spanked or disciplined through physical means, the more likely it is they will have problems with anxiety, depression and aggression later in life. The use of physical punishment as a means of family discipline is a definite health risk for children, a risk which many parents may not expose them to if they really understood the probability of negative and harmful consequences.

There is no universal method of effective discipline and while many research findings have been clear, the application of these methods in real life are a different matter. Many parents wish to avoid the health risks inherent in punitive approaches towards their children and changes can be made with or without external support.

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