Spanking can lead to aggression in toddlers

If a child is spanked at 12 months, he or she is more likely to show aggression as a toddler, according to a recent study conducted at the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University. Researchers found that the children who were spanked regularly as 1-year-olds also had lower scores on cognitive tests at age 3 compared to those whose parents didn’t believe in corporal punishment.

Details of the study can be found in this HealthDay report, “ Early Spankings Make for Aggressive Toddlers, Study Shows .”

“Age 1 is a key time for establishing the quality of the parenting and the relationship between parent and the child,” Lisa J. Berlin, a research scientist at the Center for Child and Family Policy, told HealthDay.

The researchers examined data on about 2,500 children from low-income families. Here are some other findings reported by HealthDay:

About one-third of mothers of 1-year-olds reported they or someone in their household had spanked their child in the last week, while about half of the mothers of 2- and 3-year-olds reported that their child had been spanked.

The average number of spankings for 1-year-olds was 2.6 per week, while the average for 2-year-olds was nearly three.

The study found that children who were spanked at age 1 had more aggressive behaviors at age 2 and performed worse on measures of thinking abilities at age 3.

Verbal punishment was not associated with negative effects if the mother was otherwise attentive, loving and supportive.

The connection between spanking and cognitive development remains unclear to researchers. Some say that parents who use corporal punishment are less likely to reason with their children, which can hinder development since it’s important for children to learn how to use their words to explain their feelings.

“Almost all the studies point to negative effects of spanking,” Elizabeth T. Gershoff, an associate professor in the department of human development and family sciences at University of Texas at Austin, told HealthDay. Because children tend to mimic parental behaviors, it’s possible spanking “creates a model for using aggression,” Gershoff said. “Spanking is just hitting.”

What do you think?