Smacking harmful to brains: doctors

SMACKING children increases aggression, harms brain development and should be banned, a leading international group of paediatricians has ruled.

The American Academy of Paediatrics has strengthened its stance on corporal punishment, with its new policy ruling it is ineffective in teaching children responsibility.

The world-renowned body, which represents 67,000 paediatric doctors in the US, says other methods that teach children right from wrong are safer and more effective.

“The good news is, fewer parents support the use of spanking than they did in the past,” the policy’s author Dr Robert Sege said.

“Yet corporal punishment remains legal, despite evidence that it harms kids — not only physically and mentally, but in how they perform at school and how they interact with other children.”

Research showed corporal punishment did not improve behaviour over the long term and may cause more aggressive behaviours.

In one study, children who were spanked more than twice a month at the age of three were more aggressive at five and had negative behaviours at age nine.

Other studies showed striking, yelling at or shaming a child could elevate stress hormones and lead to changes in the brain’s architecture. Harsh verbal abuse was also linked to mental health problems in preteens and adolescents.

The policy, published in the latest edition of the journal Paediatrics, is widely supported by Australian doctors.

In 2015, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians urged doctors to show families there are more effective ways of disciplining children than smacking.