Doctors' group: Spanking is ineffective, harmful

Parents should not spank their children, the American Academy of Pediatrics said Monday in its most strongly worded policy statement warning against the harmful effects of corporal punishment in the home.

The group, which represents about 67,000 doctors, also recommended that pediatricians advise parents against the use of spanking, which it defined as “noninjurious, openhanded hitting with the intention of modifying child behavior,” and said to avoid using nonphysical punishment that is humiliating, scary or threatening.

“One of the most important relationships we all have is the relationship between ourselves and our parents, and it makes sense to elim- inate or limit fear and vio- lence in that loving relation- ship,” said Dr. Robert Sege, a pediatrician at Tufts Medical Center and the Floating Hospital for Children in Boston, and one of the authors of the statement.

The academy’s new pol- icy, which will be published in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics, updates 20-year-old guidance on discipline that recommended parents be “encouraged” not to spank. The organization’s latest statement stems from a body of research that was unavailable two decades ago.

A 2016 analysis of multiple studies, for example, found that children do not benefit from spanking.

“Certainly you can get a child’s attention, but it’s not an effective strategy to teach right from wrong,” Sege said.

Recent studies have also shown that corporal pun- ishment is associated with increased aggression and makes it more likely that children will be defiant in the future. Spanking alone is associated with outcomes similar to those of children who experience physical abuse, the new academy statement says.

There are potential ramifications to the brain as well: A 2009 study of 23 young adults who had repeated exposure to harsh corporal punishment found reduced gray matter volume in an area of the prefrontal cor- tex that is believed to play a crucial role in social cognition. Those exposed to harsh punishment also had a lower performance IQ than that of a control group.

Although the study was small in scope, it can help provide a biological basis for other observations about corporal punishment, Sege said.

So what is the best way to discipline children? That largely depends on the age and temperament of the child, experts say.

Effective discipline involves practicing empa- thy and “understanding how to treat your child in different stages in develop- ment to teach them how to cool down when things do get explosive,” said Dr. Vincent Palusci, a child abuse pediatrician at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone.

The academy’s parent- ing website, HealthyChil- dren.org, offers tips for disciplining younger and older children. Rewarding posi- tive behavior, using time- outs and establishing a clear relationship between behav- ior and consequences can all be effective strategies.

“We can’t just take away spanking,” Palusci said. “We have to give parents something to replace it with."

The number of parents who spank their children has been on the decline. A 2013 Harris Poll of 2,286 adults surveyed online found 67 percent of parents said they had spanked their children and 33 percent had not. In 1995, however, 80 percent of parents said they had spanked their children while 19 percent said they had not.