Spanked kids more likely become more aggressive, whose fault?

A study in the May 2010 issue of the journal Pediatrics suggests that spanking may increase risk of high aggressiveness in children.

The study showed that kids spanked at age 3 frequently were more likely to be aggressive than those who was not spanked or spanked less frequently.

It should be noted that this is not a result from a trial. It is an observation. That means that the study has not proved that spanking is the cause for increased risk for kids to become more aggressive.

Previous studies associated spankings with lower IQ scores and anxiety and behavior problems and higher risk of violence, depression and excessive alcohol use.

All these studies are observational also. Again no trials have proved that spanking is the cause of these problems.  In reality, children who do not behave well often get spanked.  So children misbehave in the first place and then get penalized. The real question should be why certain children behave worse than others before parents even get any chance to discipline them?

In any case, researchers surveyed 2,500 mothers in the United Mattes and learned that half reported they had not spanked their three year old in the past month while 27.9 percent reported one spanking or two and 26.5 percent said they had spanked their kids more than twice.

Catherine Taylor of the Tulane University School of Public Health and colleagues then followed up two years later and found children who received more frequent spankings became more aggressive at age 5. They were more likely to argue, scream, fight, destroy things, cruelty or bullying others.

Media reports cited the American Academy of Pediatrics as opposing striking children for any reason and recommending time out, withholding privileges etc. to correct children's misbehavior.

Parents' behaviors including spanking could have a negative impact on their children's behaviors.  However, if a child ends up becoming an aggressive adult, spanking parents should not be 100% responsible for the increased aggressiveness.

One study published in1993 in  the journal Science demonstrated that aggression has its own genetic basis.  Researchers found over-aggressive men had abnormal genes for a brain chemical that assists in coping with stress.  (That is why aggression comes hand in hand with anxiety and depression).

In early 2009, Rose McDermott, professor of political science at Brown University reported people who respond to provocation aggressively may carry a "warrior gene".

The current study like any other observational studies should not be used as rock-hard evidence to blame parents who discipline their children. 

In ancient China, parents often spanked children when they misbehaved.  But those who received lots of spankings were more likely to show respect, kindness to their parents and others, according to a health observer.

Spanking is a negative tool used to correct negative behaviors.  It may cause more psychological problems than behavioral problems.

By David Liu