Beating children is not a method of education

Vicious: Hitting makes children aggressive and aggressive children are beaten more often

05/02/2014

The beating of children should not be a solution. This is also shown by a newly published study from the United States. Most parents know that they should not beat their child, but some people occasionally slip their hands. Columbia University's US scientists have now conducted a comprehensive study of what drives parents to beat their children and what effect this has on the child's development in the long term. Their results are in the „Journal of Youth and Adolescence“ released.

The research team headed by Professor Michael MacKenzie of Columbia University's School of Social Work concludes that the first decade of life in many children being beaten is marked by an escalating process. Thus spirited children were beaten more often than quiet, restrained children. This in turn leads to a more aggressive behavior of those affected and thus additionally increase the likelihood of corporal punishment in the future, report Professor MacKenzie and colleagues.

Kapp interviewed 1900 families
For their study, the US scientists evaluated the data of 1874 families from the „Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study“ from 1998 to 2000 in twenty major US cities. The families were interviewed immediately after the birth of the children and then after a period of one, three, five and nine years to their daily living together. According to the researchers, 28 percent of parents said that they had already beaten their child in their first year of life. Across all age groups, it was noticeable that children with more behavioral problems received more and more beating. This is an indication that more difficult children are more likely to elicit punishment from their parents, according to Prof. MacKenzie and colleagues.

Spanking leads to aggression in later years
However, flogging also had a clear effect on the children's behavior regardless of age. The aggression of children in later ages had increased significantly by the corporal punishment. This also applied to the children who were already beaten in the first year of life. At this age, a physical punishment caused purely by the behavior of the children is more likely to be ruled out, as under three years of age no conscious provocation can be assumed. This shows that parents who lose patience at an early age have a lasting influence on the behavior of their children, and that confrontations between children and parents will become much more likely in the future. The researchers report an escalating behavioral pattern. If parents manage to break this vicious circle at an early stage, they will make life easier for themselves and their child.

Risk factors for corporal punishment?
The US scientists also identified numerous risk factors in their study that could lead to increased flogging and correspondingly aggressive behavior of the children. Examples include parental drug abuse, parental partnership violence, a father's imprisonment, and a low maternal intelligence quotient, report Professor MacKenzie and colleagues. „The results show a bi-directional pattern between parent and child that starts early and intensifies in the first decade“, the scientists report. According to the researchers, children would benefit significantly if parents adopt more positive behaviors and renounce corporal punishment altogether. „ The results are particularly important in the US context given the relatively high prevalence of caning in that country“, the researchers write further. To date, beating is a typical experience for American children. In the „Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study“ In the third year of life, 57 percent of parents said they occasionally slipped their hands. At the age of nine, after all, almost half of the children were spanked every now and then. (Fp)