Spanking: A Discipline? or An Abuse?

"The more you physically punish your children for their lack of self-control, the less they have," Sarah Kovac says in her  CNN 'interview last July 23, 2014.

We all believe that everything must be in order. Whether we like it or not, our law governs, us so we abide by it just to say that we are good citizens. But it all starts at home. Having said, parents discipline their kids by setting household rules. When they disobey one of those standards, parents usually give them punishments for them, not only to know they are wrong, but also they love them, wanting them to be good people one day. Sometimes, parents give them unbearable punishments like the well-known corporal punishment. But little did we know that as parents do that to their kids, it affects their children more physically it looks like. Upon the research of the University of Texas, the harm that spanking increases the likelihood of a wide variety of undesired outcomes for children thus does the opposite of what parents usually want it to do. By the study made by Elizabeth Gershoff and Andrew Grogan- Kaylor, children who are more spanked, the more they likely they will show social- behavioral problems and will most probably lead them to have mental illnesses. There will be a greater possibility that they will also do physical reprimands when they raise their family. As for the UNICEF organization's 2014 report, there are as much as 80% of parents, around the world, use spanking as a punishment for their kids. Physical abuse has detrimental effects on children. Gershoff stated;

"We, as a society, think of spanking and physical abuse as distinct behaviors, yet our research shows that spanking is linked with the same adverse child outcomes as abuse, just to a slightly lesser degree."

 Another research by the PsychologyToday, Molly S. Castelloe Ph.D. said, that spanking deteriorates child developmental growth and mental I.Q, which was shown in a Canadian study. It also damages a child's Nervous System especially the brain. It also increases the aggression on a child and eventually turns to depression.

Spanking may become an abuse if it is done several times and severely causing trauma to children. We have limitations as humans.Disciplining a child is an also a task God has given us. But also remember, that they are also blessing to us. So we also have to control ourselves in order for us to guide them and not to harm them.