Spanking a Child Makes Them More Aggressive, Disobdient Later in Life

To spank or not to spank, that is the question that many parents face and many may disagree on. Some parents may choose to communicate face-to-face and explain to the child what they did was wrong, while others may choose to take more physical approach. A new study released Monday showed that spanking may have further negative effects than anticipated - the child may actually grow to become more aggressive later on in life.

The study published in the journal Pediatrics found that children who were spanked as five-year-olds were more likely to be aggressive and be disobedient later in elementary school. Despite mounting evidence of the harms of spanking which outweigh the benefits, it is 'still a very typical experience' for children, the study's lead author said, who said most children experience spanking at least once in their lives.

"Spanking does make the kid stop," the lead author, Michael J. MacKenzie, an associate professor at the Columbia School of Social Work, told The New York Times.

"It gives the immediate feedback that it's working. But the goal is to have kids regulate themselves over time. And in that, spanking fails."

MacKenzie and his research team used data from a long-term study of children born in one of 20 U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000. The new report includes about 1,900 children. In order to conduct the study, researchers surveyed parents when children were three and five years old about whether and how often they spanked their child.

The results found that mothers were more likely to spank than fathers. This could because they are the primary caretaker and spend more time with the children. In total, 57 percent of mothers and 40 percent of fathers admitted to spanking their 3-year-old, while 52 percent of mothers and 33 percent of fathers spanked their child at age 5.

The key problem, according to Elizabeth Gershoff who studies parental discipline and its effects at the University of Texas at Austin is that "spanking models aggression as a way of solving problems that you can hit people and get what you want.

"When (children) want another kid's toy, the parents haven't taught them how to use their words or how to negotiate," she told Reuters Health. Gershoff was not involved in the study.