Use the rod and spoil the child’s brain development
Spanking similar to abuse, finds study
Spanking has the potential to affect a child’s brain development in similar ways to more severe forms of violence.
Research by Harvard academics, published recently in the Child Development journal, builds on existing studies that show heightened activity in response to threat cues in certain regions of the brains of children who experience abuse.
The group found that children who had been spanked had a greater neural response in multiple regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC).
These areas of the brain respond to cues in the environment, such as a threat, and may affect decision-making and processing of situations.
“We know that children whose families use corporal punishment are more likely to develop anxiety, depression, behaviour problems and other mental health problems, but many people don’t think about spanking as a form of violence,” said Katie McLaughlin, senior researcher. “In this study, we wanted to examine whether there was an impact of spanking at a neurobiological level, in terms of how the brain is developing.”
According to the study, corporal punishment has been linked to the development of mental health issues, anxiety, depression, behavioural problems and substance use disorders. About half of parents in US studies reported spanking their children in the past year and a third in the past week.
However, the relationship between spanking and brain activity has not previously been studied.
McLaughlin and her colleagues analysed data from a large study of children between the ages of three and 11.
They focused on 147 children around the ages of 10 and 11 who had been spanked, excluding children who had also experienced more severe forms of violence.
Each child lay in an MRI machine and watched a computer screen on which were displayed different images of actors making “fearful” and “neutral” faces.
A scanner captured the child’s brain activity in response to each kind of face, and those images were analysed to determine whether the faces sparked different patterns of brain activity in children who were spanked compared to those who were not.
“On average, across the entire sample, fearful faces elicited greater activation than neutral faces in many regions throughout the brain ... and children who were spanked demonstrated greater activation … than children who were never spanked,” the researchers found.
By contrast, “there were no regions of the brain where activation to fearful relative to neutral faces differed between children who were abused and children who were spanked”.
The findings are in line with similar research conducted on children who had experienced severe violence, suggesting “while we might not conceptualise corporal punishment to be a form of violence, in terms of how a child’s brain responds, it’s not all that different from abuse. It’s more a difference of degree than of type.
“By identifying certain neural pathways that explain the consequences of corporal punishment in the brain, we can further suggest that this kind of punishment might be detrimental to children …”
Gauteng counselling psychologist Dr Ingrid Artus said the brain interpreted any form of potential harm to the self as a threat that activated the fight and flight response, which manifested either in anger or anxiety.
“… a child who experiences physical punishment in response to undesirable behaviour may potentially internalise very negative messages about their sense of inherent worth, potential and lovability.
“The corporal punishment as experienced by the child is a learning experience on a brain level, where certain information about the event is associated with strong negative emotions about themselves, others and the world in general.
“The physical punishment, however, contrary to common belief, is less efficient to facilitate a learning experience with regards to the reason for punishment, besides attempting to avoid pain.”