SHOCKING!!! How ‘beating’ your children affects their mental health
In this part of the world, especially in Nigeria, beating children is always the first choice of correction, but now an American scientist has said that beating children affects the mental illness of children, while he explains why parents should not spank the children.
Parents who hit their kids may believe that a swat “just
gets their attention” or imposes old-fashioned discipline, but spanking
in fact makes behavior worse than it was before and can cause long-term
harm, pediatricians said Monday.
The American Academy of Pediatrics strengthened its advice
against corporal punishment in update guidelines, saying it makes kids
more aggressive and raises the risk of mental health issues.
“Experiencing corporal punishment makes it more, not less, likely that
children will be defiant and aggressive in the future,” the groupsays in
its new guidelines to pediatricians. There’s no benefit to spanking,”
said Dr. Robert Sege of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, who helped write
the guidelines. We know that children grow and develop better with
positive role modeling and by setting healthy limits. We can do better.”
Verbal abuse and humiliation is also counterproductive, the pediatrics group said.
“Parents, other caregivers, and adults interacting with
children and adolescents should not use corporal punishment (including
hitting and spanking), either in anger or as a punishment for or
consequence of misbehavior, nor should they use any disciplinary
strategy, including verbal abuse, that causes shame or humiliation,” the
group says in the updated guidelines.
Verbal abuse and humiliation is also counterproductive, the pediatrics group said.
“Parents, other caregivers, and adults interacting with
children and adolescents should not use corporal punishment (including
hitting and spanking), either in anger or as a punishment for or
consequence of misbehavior, nor should they use any disciplinary
strategy, including verbal abuse, that causes shame or humiliation,” the
group says in the updated guidelines.
Americans still strongly believe in beating, spanking or paddling children, both at home and in school.
“According to a 2004 survey, approximately two-thirds of
parents of young children reported using some sort of physical
punishment. These parents reported that by fifth grade, 80 percent of
children had been physically punished, and 85 percent of teenagers
reported exposure to physical punishment, with 51 percent having been
hit with a belt or similar object,” the pediatrics group said.
And in 2013, a Harris Interactive poll found that 70 percent
of parents agreed with the statement that “good, hard spanking is
sometimes necessary to discipline a child,” although that’s down from 84
percent of parents in 1986.
But things are changing, Sege said.
“If you limit your surveys to people who have a child aged 5
years and younger in their homes, who are a new generation of parents,
most of them don’t like to spank their children and often don’t spank
their children,” he said. “We think there’s a generational shift where
today’s parents are much less likely to spank their children than their
parents were.”
One group studied parents in their home and found most
parents did give kids a verbal warning before physically striking out.
But they did not wait long. “Corporal punishment then occurred at a mean
of 30 seconds later, suggesting that parents may have been ‘responding
either impulsively or emotionally rather than instrumentally and
intentionally,’” the pediatrics group said.
It did little good.
“The effects of corporal punishment were transient: within
10 minutes, most children (73 percent) had resumed the same behavior for
which they had been punished.”
Not only does hitting kids do little good; it can worsen their long-term behavior.
“Children who experience repeated use of corporal punishment tend to
develop more aggressive behaviors, increased aggression in school, and
an increased risk of mental health disorders and cognitive problems,”
Sege said in a statement.
That held even when parents were otherwise warm and loving.
Parents who hit their children often have serious problems
of their own. “Parents who suffer from depression tended to use corporal
punishment more frequently. In addition, family economic challenges,
mental health problems, intimate partner violence and substance abuse
all are associated with increased reliance on corporal punishment,” Sege
said.
“Second, use positive reinforcement to increase the behavior you want from your child.”
Time outs work very well for younger children, the group
said. “Discipline older children by temporarily removing favorite
privileges, such as sports activities or playing with friends. If you
have questions about disciplining your children, talk with your
pediatrician,” it advises.
Pediatricians will almost always recommend discipline that
does not include hitting children, or forcing them to eat spices,
washing their mouths out with soap or other abusive punishments. Only 6
percent of the 787 US pediatricians surveyed in 2016 approved of
spanking, and only 2.5 percent actually expected it to do any good.
The American Psychological Association says positive reinforcement is more effective than spanking.
“Positive reinforcement for alternative behaviors is extremely effective,” it says.
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