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PsyPost: Corporal punishment study shows kids misbehave within 10 minutes of spanking

PsyPost, Holden, spanking, SMU, kids misbehavePsyPost internet news has covered the research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment.

The article, “Corporal punishment study shows kids misbehave within 10 minutes of spanking,” published April 16.

PsyPost, Holden, spanking, SMU, kids misbehave

PsyPost internet news has covered the research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment. The article, “Corporal punishment study shows kids misbehave within 10 minutes of spanking,” published April 16.

Holden, an expert in families and child development, is a founding member of the U.S. Alliance to End the Hitting of Children, at endhittingusa.org.

He was recently elected president of Dallas’ oldest child abuse prevention agency, Family Compass.

Most recently Holden’s research found that children misbehaved within 10 minutes of being spanked and that parents don’t follow the guidelines for spanking that pro-spanking advocates claim are necessary for spanking to be effective.

Other recent research showed that parents who favor spanking changed their minds after they were briefly exposed to summaries of research detailing the negative impact of corporal punishment on children. Holden, who considers spanking a public health problem, said the research indicates that parents’ attitudes about spanking could economically, quickly and effectively be changed to consider alternative disciplinary methods.

Holden’s earlier research provided a unique real-time look at spanking in a way that’s never before been studied. In a study of 37 families, mothers voluntarily recorded their evening interactions with their young children over the course of six days, including incidents of corporal punishment.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

PsyPost
A new study based on real-time audio recordings of parents practicing corporal punishment discovered that spanking was far more common than parents admit, that children were hit for trivial misdeeds and that children then misbehaved within 10 minutes of being punished.

Advocates of corporal punishment have outlined best practices for responsible spanking. But real-time audio from this study revealed that parents fail to follow the guidelines, said psychologistGeorge Holden, who is lead author on the study and a parenting and child development expert at Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

The real-time audio interactions revealed that parents were not always calm, as the guidelines recommend, but instead were often angry when they spanked or hit their child; they didn’t spank as a last resort; and they gave spankings for minor infractions, not just serious misbehavior. And while many spanking advocates recommend hitting children no more than twice, parents in the audio recordings were slapping and hitting their children more often.

Read the full story.

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By Margaret Allen

Senior research writer, SMU Public Affairs