Tag: George W. Holden

CBS News: The “spanking” debate — views depend on what you call it

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 11, 2017

CBS News covered the research of SMU Psychology Professor George W. Holden, an expert in spanking and its adverse impact on child development. Holden is co-author on a new study that found corporal punishment is viewed as more acceptable and effective when it’s referred to as spanking.

The new study found that parents and nonparents alike feel better about corporal punishment when it’s called spanking rather than hitting or beating.

Study participants judged identical acts of a child’s misbehavior and the corporal punishment that followed it, but rated the discipline as better or worse simply depending on the verb used to describe it.

SMU psychologist Alan S. Brown was lead author on the study.

Holden is a noted expert on parenting, discipline and family violence and a professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

He strongly advocates against corporal punishment and cites overwhelming research, including his own, that has demonstrated that spanking is not only ineffective, but also harmful to children, and many times leads to child abuse.

Holden is a founding member of the U.S. Alliance to End the Hitting of Children, endhittingusa.org.

Brown is an expert in how people store and retrieve information about the real world, and the manner in which those processes fail us, such as tip of the tongue experience, where one is momentarily stymied in accessing well-stored knowledge.

He also explores the prevalence of other varieties of spontaneous familiarity, related to déjà vu, and whether there are changes across the age span and how people incorporate other’s life experiences into their own autobiography.

The CBS News article, “The ‘spanking’ debate: Views depend on what you call it,” published Jan. 5, 2017.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Mary Brophy Marcus
CBS News
Words matter when it comes to how people perceive parents’ actions when they discipline their kids, a new study shows.

When researchers at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, asked adults – 481 parents and 191 without kids – to judge a child’s misbehavior and the punishment that followed, the study participants were more accepting of the same violent punishment when it was called a “spank” versus terms like “slap,” “hit” or “beat.”

In other words, the same form of discipline was considered better or worse depending on the verb used to describe it, study author Dr. George Holden, professor and chair of the department of psychology at SMU, told CBS News.

“Other people have talked about this issue, so it’s not a novel idea, but no one to date has done an empirical study to show simply by changing the particular verb used to describe a parental act that it does indeed change peoples’ perceptions,” he said.

Read the full story.

Tags Alan S. Brown, Dedman College, George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

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CW33: Spanking Sounds OK, Hitting Not So Much, SMU Study Says

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 11, 2017

Television station CW33 quoted SMU Psychology Professor Alan S. Brown for his latest research that found corporal punishment is viewed as more acceptable and effective when it’s referred to as spanking.

Brown’s new study found that parents and nonparents alike feel better about corporal punishment when it’s called spanking rather than hitting or beating.

The article, “Spanking Sounds OK, Hitting Not So Much, SMU Study Says,” published Jan. 4, 2017.

Brown was lead author on the research, conducted with SMU psychologist George W. Holden, a noted expert on parenting, discipline and family violence and a professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

Brown’s research primarily involves how people store and retrieve information about the real world, and the manner in which those processes fail us, such as tip of the tongue experience, where one is momentarily stymied in accessing well-stored knowledge.

He also explores the prevalence of other varieties of spontaneous familiarity, related to déjà vu, and whether there are changes across the age span. Finally, there are several research projects on how people incorporate other’s life experiences into their own autobiography.

Holden is noted for his expertise on spanking. He strongly advocates against corporal punishment and cites overwhelming research, including his own, that has demonstrated that spanking is not only ineffective, but also harmful to children, and many times leads to child abuse.

Holden is a founding member of the U.S. Alliance to End the Hitting of Children, endhittingusa.org.

Read the story at CW33.

EXCERPT:

By Eric Gonzales
The CW33
So how does the word spanking hit you?

A new study by Southern Methodist University bets there are no hard feelings when it comes to getting spanked.

Psychology Professor Alan Brown says the word spank sounds more acceptable to people than saying a kid is getting a slap, a hit or a beating as punishment.

Even though hitting or slapping as punishment may be the same as a spanking, the professor says spanking sounds less harsh.

But parents say it may depend on where you’re spanked. “We got our butts spanked, our butts, not out backs, not our legs,” said Renee Hudspeth. “Even if we did get hit on the arm or the leg, it`s because we were trying to run from our parents.”

The professor says even swatting a kid sounds better than other words for corporal punishment, like beating.

Of course, some people say it’s never okay to hit a child. But a lot of parents believe spanking isn`t behind them.

Read the story at CW33.

Tags Alan S. Brown, Dedman College, George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

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Corporal punishment viewed as more acceptable and effective when referred to as spanking, study finds

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 3, 2017

Parents and nonparents alike buffer their views of physical discipline and rate it more common, acceptable and effective when it’s labeled with a more neutral, less violent word

Parents and nonparents alike feel better about corporal punishment when it’s called ‘spanking’ rather than ‘hitting’ or ‘beating,’ according to a new study by researchers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

Discipline acts referred to as spank and swat were ranked as more effective and acceptable than those referred to as slap, hit or beat.

The findings of the study indicate that people buffer negative views of corporal punishment by calling it by a more culturally acceptable label, said psychologist Alan Brown, psychology professor at SMU and lead author on the research.

“Our findings suggest that the way child-discipline is described may alter the action’s implied intensity or physical harm, and its consequences such as emotional upset,” Brown said. “Calling a response to misbehavior a ‘swat’ may imply higher prevalence of that response as well as make it seem more justifiable and valid — even if the actual punishment is the same as an act described more harshly.”

Participants in the study rated the acts after reading and responding to hypothetical scenarios in which a mom disciplined her misbehaving son. Spank rated highest for commonness, acceptability and effectiveness, while beat ranked the worst, he said.

“The labels that we give to our experiences can have a moderate to profound influence on how we interpret and remember these events,” Brown said. “We found that altering the verb used to describe an act of corporal punishment can change perception of its effectiveness and acceptance of it.”

One implication of the study is that public health interventions to eliminate corporal punishment should focus on changing the semantics of discipline to reduce or prevent violence, say the authors. They cite UNICEF’s 2014 recommendation that “There is a need to eliminate words which maintain ‘social norms that hide violence in plain sight.’”

The psychologists endorse replacing the verb spank with the verb assault, as suggested by other researchers in the field, which they say could change the perception of spanking and reduce its use.

Labels can buffer how actions are perceived
Research consistently has found that corporal punishment does emotional and developmental harm to children and fails to improve a child’s behavior over the long run.

“Our belief is that it is never OK to discipline a child by striking them, and that various terms commonly used to describe such actions can buffer how these actions are perceived,” Brown said. “Our research demonstrated that ratings of how common, acceptable and effective an act of corporal punishment appears to be is significantly influenced by the word used to describe it.”

Co-author on the study was psychologist George Holden, a noted expert on parenting, discipline and family violence and co-author on the research and a professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

The findings were reported in the article “Spank, Slap, or Hit? How Labels Alter Perceptions of Child Discipline” published in the journal Psychology of Violence.

The other co-author on the research was Rose Ashraf, a graduate student in SMU’s Department of Psychology.

Holden is a founding steering committee member and current president of the U.S. Alliance to End the Hitting of Children.

Study examined how different terms influence perceptions and actions
Participants were 191 nonparents and 481 parents.

The discipline scenarios were between a mom and her 5-year-old son. The mom and son varied with each scenario, which described a boy in eight acts of misbehavior: aggression, stealing, ignoring requests, deception, teasing, property destruction, animal cruelty and lying.

Study participants read each vignette of misbehavior, and the subsequent description of the mom’s response using a term commonly reflecting corporal punishment: spank, slap, swat, hit and beat.

The authors selected the labels from the most commonly used terms in the research literature for corporal punishment in American culture.

The hypothetical scenarios were brief and left context and details such as the seriousness of the transgression or the intentions of the misbehaving child to the respondents’ imaginations.

For example: “John continues to hit his sibling after his mother has asked him to stop. John’s mother ______ him.” The participants then rated the mother’s response on how common it was, how acceptable it was and how effective it was.

The purpose was to examine how differences in the terms influence perceptions of parental discipline, the authors said.

“Our study highlights the role of language in legitimizing violent parental behavior,” according to the authors in their article. “Altering the verb used to describe the same act of corporal punishment can have a substantial impact on how that parental response is evaluated, with some terms having a relative tempering effect (spank, swat) compared with others (hit, slap, beat).”

Tags Alan S. Brown, Dedman College, George W. Holden, Rosa Ashraf, SMU Department of Psychology

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New York Daily News: Shocking viral video of 5-year-old boy being paddled

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 22, 2016

Paddling still legal in public schools in 19 states, but research has shown corporal punishment is damaging to child

The New York Daily News quoted SMU Psychology Professor George W. Holden for his expertise on spanking in an article about a Georgia principal paddling a 5-year-old boy as punishment. The paddling was caught on video and went viral on the Internet by viewers who were horrified and shocked.

The article, “Shocking viral video of 5-year-old boy being paddled shines light on legal but ‘damaging’ corporal punishment,” published April 15, 2016.

Holden is a leading expert on parenting, discipline and family violence. He strongly advocates against corporal punishment and cites overwhelming research, including his own, that has demonstrated that spanking is not only ineffective, but also harmful to children, and many times leads to child abuse.

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

Holden’s earlier research, “Corporal punishment: Mother’s self-recorded audio,” 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.

His work into the determinants of parental behavior, parental social cognition, and the causes and consequences of family violence has been supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, The Timberlawn Research Foundation, and, most recently, the U.S. State Department.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Laura Bult
New York Daily News
Horrified viewers watched video of a Georgia principal paddling a 5-year-old boy as punishment — a legal but controversial action that has sparked a conversation about the effects of corporal punishment on children.

It is still legal to strike kids as a form of punishment in public schools in 19 states, primarily in the south and the west, despite research and experts’ views that it amounts to child abuse.

“I suspect this thing happens a lot. A lot of paddling goes on in small towns in Texas, and particularly in southern states,” George Holden, the chair of the psychology department at Southern Methodist University and the president of the U.S. Alliance to End the Hitting of Children, told the Daily News.

The practice persists primarily in the south because of the heavy influence of religion, Holden added.

Students in states where it is legal received swats, spanks and slaps 166,807 times in the 2011-2012 school year, according to the most recent federal data.

Corporal punishment is protected by a 1977 Supreme Court decision, which ruled that physical discipline in schools didn’t violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Shana Marie Perez’s viral video showing her son getting punished by Jasper County Primary School principal Pam Edge as the assistant principal held him down was lawful, but disturbed many opponents of the archaic practice.

“Corporal punishment is potentially damaging to children, it’s not the best way to deal with them and it’s also a violation of their right not to be hit,” Holden fumed, saying that giving children painful punishments teaches them to be violent and often results in depression and anxiety.

“If the adult is hitting a child, they learn to hit other children if they’re upset or angry,” he said.

Perez claimed the school threatened her son with suspension if she didn’t agree to the punishment and that she could get sent to jail for truancy for having already withheld him from school for 18 days that school year.

Read the full story.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

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SMU Research Day 2016: Students present their research to the SMU and Dallas community

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date February 18, 2016

Day of presenting in Hughes-Trigg Student Center allows students to discuss their research, identify potential collaborators, discover other perspectives.

SMU graduate and undergraduate students presented their research to the SMU community at the University’s Research Day 2016 on Feb. 10.

Sponsored by the SMU Office of Research and Graduate Studies, the research spanned more than 20 different fields from schools across campus.

The annual Research Day event fosters communication between students in different disciplines, gives students the opportunity to present their work in a professional setting, and allows students to share with their peers and industry professionals from the greater Dallas community the outstanding research conducted at SMU.

A cash prize of $250 was awarded to the best poster from each department or judging group.

View the list of student winners whose research was awarded a cash prize.

View highlights of the presentations.

Some highlights of the research:

Faris Altamimi, a student of Dr. Sevinc Sengor in Lyle School‘s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, presented a study investigating experimental and modeling approaches for enhanced methane generation from municipal solid waste, while providing science-based solutions for cleaner, renewable sources of energy for the future.
Yongqiang Li and Xiaogai Li, students of Dr. Xin-Lin Gao in Lyle School’s Mechanical Engineering Department, are addressing the serious blunt trauma injury that soldiers on the battlefield suffer from ballistics impact to their helmets. The study simulated the ballistic performance of the Advanced Combat Helmet.
Audrey Reeves, Sara Merrikhihaghi and Kevin Bruemmer, students of Dr. Alexander Lippert, in the Chemistry Department of Dedman College, presented research on cell-permeable fluorescent probes in the imaging of enzymatic pathways in living cells, specifically the gaseous signaling molecule nitroxyl. Their research better understands nitroxyl’s role as an inhibitor of an enzyme that is key in the conversion of acetaldehyde to acetic acid.
Rose Ashraf, a student of Dr. George Holden in the Psychology Department of Dedman College, presented her research on harsh verbal discipline in the home and its prediction of child compliance. It was found permissive parents are least likely to elicit prolonged compliance.
Nicole Vu and Caitlin Rancher, students of Dr. Ernest N. Jouriles and Dr. Renee McDonald in the Psychology Department of Dedman College, presented research on children’s threat appraisals of interparental conflict and it’s relationship to child anxiety.

See the full catalog of participants and their abstracts.

Tags Alexander R. Lippert, Ernest Jouriles, George W. Holden, James E. Quick, Renee McDonald, Sevinc Sengor, Xin-Lin Gao

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Public News Service: Hug it out — experts warn against physically punishing children

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date March 30, 2015

“I’m not arguing one should be lax and not engage in any discipline, but one can easily discipline children without hitting them.” — George Holden

Public News Service quoted SMU Psychology Professor George W. Holden as an expert source in an article about a new study from Duke University that warns against resorting to physical punishment.

The article, “Hug it Out: Experts Warn Against Physically Punishing Children,” published March 30, 2015.

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

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

Most recently Holden’s research, “Real-time audio of corporal punishment,” 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, “Parents less likely to spank,” 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.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Stephanie Carson
Public News Service
This week, many Tennessee children are rejoicing because it’s spring break, but the time off from school may wear on the patience of some parents.

A new study from Duke University warns against resorting to physical punishment.

In the study of 1,000 children and mothers from eight different countries, researchers found that maternal warmth can’t dampen the anxiety and aggression connected to physical punishment.

“A parent who is both causing pain to the child by frequently hitting a child, but also saying they love them and hugging them, is very confusing to a child,” says George Holden, a psychology professor at Southern Methodist University. “It’s virtually unanimous that physical punishment is not an effective parenting technique.”

Instead of spanking or hitting, experts cited in the report recommend examining the causes of the behavior.

For example, asking questions such as, “Is your child hungry? Are you pushing them too hard?”

Holden adds joint problem solving is also effective, as well as modeling good behavior yourself.

Holden is one of the founders of the U.S. Alliance to Stop the Hitting of Children, which is a group of experts and parents lobbying for the end of physical means of punishment.

“It doesn’t promote good, warm, loving relationships, which is what is the most important thing to do in raising a child,” Holden stresses. “Now I’m not arguing one should be lax and not engage in any discipline, but one can easily discipline children without hitting them.”

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

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Christian Science Monitor: To spank or not to spank — corporal punishment in the US

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date October 23, 2014

SMU psychologist and child development expert George Holden commented about the dangers of spanking for an article on corporal punishment in The Christian Science Monitor

Reporter Stephanie Hanes for The Christian Science Monitor interviewed SMU psychologist and child development expert George W. Holden for his perspective on corporal punishment. Holden, a noted expert on the dangers of corporal punishment, is a leader of the nation’s anti-spanking movement.

Hanes’ Oct. 19 article, “To spank or not to spank: Corporal punishment in the US,” explores the controversial practice of corporal punishment in the context of the Adrian Peterson case.

An expert in families and parenting, Holden is a founding member of the U.S. Alliance to End the Hitting of Children, endhittingusa.org.

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

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Stephanie Hanes
The Christian Science Monitor
The way corporal punishment evolved in Sandy Haase’s family is, in many ways, typical. Growing up in Orange County, in California, in the 1960s, Ms. Haase knew what would happen if her father got angry. If she or one of her siblings talked back, or perhaps turned on the TV when they were not supposed to do so, “it was ‘Go and get the yardstick,’ ” she says.

The “spankings” that would follow, she says, were angry, severe, and scary. One instance left her in need of bandages. When she had children of her own, she and her husband agreed that they would use spanking only as a last resort.

Which is what they did, recalls her 22-year-old son, Colin.

“Looking at it now, I don’t see it as a negative thing,” he says. He describes his and his sister’s upbringing as warm and loving, with spanking only a very minor part of childhood: “It helped me. It set me straight when I wasn’t listening to words.”

Still, he says, he does not think he will spank his own children when he has them.

For her part, Sandy Haase expresses ambivalence about it. […]

A few recent studies, however, have questioned those early 2000s connections between corporal punishment and race. Prof. George Holden of Southern Methodist University in Dallas says that the difference in attitudes and outcomes is socioeconomic and regional rather than racial. Other studies show that families with more children tend to spank more. And, as with just about everything in the research about corporal punishment, the effect attributed to spanking depends on how numbers are crunched and interpreted. […]

Read the full story.

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Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

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NBC News Make the Case: Corporal Punishment

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date September 29, 2014

“There are hundreds of studies finding that children who are spanked more are more likely to show a variety of problems,” — SMU parenting expert George Holden

SMU Psychology Professor George W. Holden, psychology, and Michael Farris, president of ParentalRights.Org, debated opposite sides of the controversial question “Should parents be allowed to practice corporal punishment?” The debate aired Sept. 25 on NBC’s Meet the Press: Make the Case.

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

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

His work, into the determinants of parental behavior, parental social cognition, and the causes and consequences of family violence, has been supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, The Timberlawn Research Foundation, and, most recently, the U.S. State Department.

Watch the debate.

Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

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The Week: Christians have no moral rationale for spanking their children

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date September 24, 2014

80% of born-again believers say physical punishment of children is OK. But neither Bible nor social science supports spanking.

Journalist Jonathan Merritt with high-profile online magazine The Week cited the research findings of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment in the context of the Adrian Peterson case. Merritt’s story, “Christians have no moral rationale for spanking their children,” published Sept. 23.

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

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

Read The Week’s full story.

EXCERPT:

By Jonathan Merritt
The Week
As everyone living above ground knows, Minnesota Vikings’ star running back Adrian Peterson has been indicted on child abuse charges. The NFL star hit his four-year-old son with a “switch,” creating welts on the child’s legs, scrotum, and buttocks. In response, the outspoken Christian athlete invoked the Almighty, tweeting a picture from a popular religious devotional, Jesus Calling, with a quote about the perils of “habitual judging.”

Peterson isn’t the only Christian who thinks good parents should hit their children, or even that their faith commands it. Eighty percent of born-again Christians believe that spanking is acceptable. This is 15 percent higher than the general population.

But the wrong-headed belief that hitting children is not only a good thing but a “God thing” is rooted in poor and partial readings of the Bible, as well as ignorance about modern social science.

This false gospel of spanking preached by many belt-swinging believers is harmful to children. It must stop.

An article on the “Focus on the Family” website written by evangelical author Chip Ingram says, “The Bible’s word on discipline clearly demands that parents be responsible and diligent in spanking.”

I grew up in the evangelical South in a pro-spanking family. When my fellow Christians talked about protecting parents’ “rights to discipline their children,” they would often quote Proverbs 13:24: “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.”

That settles it, right?

Wrong.

Read The Week’s full story.

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Dallas Observer: The DeSoto School District Paddled Students 227 Times Last Year, but Won’t Say How or Why

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date September 17, 2014

Texas leads the nation in cases of corporal punishment, says Dr. George Holden, SMU.

Unfair Park journalist Emily Mathis with the Dallas Observer interviewed SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment in the context of the Adrian Peterson case. Mathis’ story, “The DeSoto School District Paddled Students 227 Times Last Year, but Won’t Say How or Why,” published Sept. 17.

Holden also appeared on the NPR Public radio show “On Point” with host Tom Ashbrook as part of a guest panel of experts talking about corporal punishment in light of the Adrian Peterson case. The segment, “Kids, Discipline, And The Adrian Peterson Debate” aired Sept. 17.

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

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

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Emily Mathis
Dallas Observer
The internet has gone wild over the past few days with news that Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings is facing child abuse charges after disciplining his 4-year-old son with a switch, and was separately accused of leaving a scar on another 4-year-old son’s face. A native of Palestine, Texas, Peterson’s charge has spurred an impassioned debate between corporal punishment advocates and fierce opponents. But in nearby DeSoto ISD, the practice is a long-standing tradition, and one that is shied away from public eyes.

Last school year, DeSoto ISD administered corporal punishment 227 times. DISD spokeswoman Beth Trimble points out that some of those kids were repeat offenders, so the actual number of children paddled is unclear. Nevertheless, the incident is indicative of a continuing trend across Texas public schools for corporal punishment. According to Dr. George Holden, a psychologist and family violence researcher at SMU, Texas leads the nation in cases of corporal punishment.

“The most common reason parents approve is that it was done to them as children. They turned out okay, so they do it to their kids. It’s an easy technique to use to get immediate behavior change from the child,” says Holden. Still, specific data is often unclear for the number of kids physically punished in Texas schools. “It’s also something that school districts don’t want to advertise or draw attention to,” says Holden. “And students are embarrassed.”

Read the full story.

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The Washington Post: For anti-spanking movement, changing the culture like “fighting a glacier.”

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date September 16, 2014

Research has shown spanking is ineffective, and negative consequences can stem from corporal punishment.

Journalist Steve Hendrix with The Washington Post covered the research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment. The story, “For anti-spanking movement, changing the culture like “fighting a glacier,” published Sept. 15.

Holden was an expert source for WB33 News and Fox 4 News on corporal punishment, and his research was also cited by the political blog Think Progress in the article, “Adrian Peterson’s Child Abuse Allegations Reopen Debate Over Corporal Punishment,” published Sept. 13.

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

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

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Stephen Hendrix
The Washington Post
George Holden is not glad that Adrian Peterson whipped his boy. But he’s glad that so many people are talking about it. The father of the fledgling ban-spanking movement has been spending the last few days fielding media calls and writing op-eds because he knows now is the time to get his no-hitting message out to a public in which huge majorities say spanking is okay.

“It’s like fighting a glacier,” said Holden, a professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University and co-founder of the group EndHittingUSA.org. “But the Peterson case is a teachable moment. It’s a chance to tell parents that there is a lot of research evidence showing that hitting is not only ineffective but can result in unintended negative consequences for children.”

Read the full story.

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ABC News: Adrian Peterson Case Brings Scrutiny to Child Spanking

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date September 15, 2014

Between 70 percent and 90 percent of Americans admit to using some form of physical force when disciplining their kids.

Journalist Geetika Rudra with ABC News covered the research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment. Her story, “Adrian Peterson Case Brings Scrutiny to Child Spanking,” aired Sept. 14.

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

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

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Geetika Rudra
ABC News
The pending child abuse case against Minnesota Viking Adrian Peterson has brought spanking, a common form of child discipline used by parents, back into public scrutiny.

“By the the time they reach adolescence, 85 percent of the nation’s children will have been, at one point or another, spanked,” Dr. Alan Kazdin, a psychologist at Yale University told ABC News. The figure comes from a 2003 study in which Kazdin investigated the use of spanking in disciplining children.

And between 70 percent and 90 percent of Americans admit to using some form of physical force when disciplining their kids, according to Southern Methodist University psychology professor George Holden.

“Physical punishment is extremely common for young children,” Holden told ABC News. “It’s very common in the United States.”

Kazdin’s 2003 study defines spanking as “hitting a child with an open hand on the buttocks or extremities with the intent to discipline without leaving a bruise or causing physical harm.”

But while spanking is prevalent, it is ineffective, Kazdin said.

“You don’t need spanking to change behavior,” Kazdin said. “It is not effective at all. It increases aggression in children, has emotional consequences.”

The line between spanking and more serious physical abuse is often muddled by theoretical and practical definitions, Kazdin said.

His study defines physical abuse as “corporal punishment that is harsh and excessive, involves the use of objects … is directed to other parts of the body than the extremities, and causes or has the potential to cause physical harm.”

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News

The Washington Post: Parents still spank their kids for trivial reasons even when researchers are listening in

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 23, 2014

Journalist Abby Phillip with The Washington Post covered the research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment. Her story, “Parents still spank their kids for trivial reasons even when researchers are listening in,” published April 22.

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

Holden 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, with audio.

EXCERPT:

by Abby Phillip
The Washington Post
With the culture war over spanking still well underway, you might expect that parents who adhere to the practice are starting to feel the stigma.

If they are, it’s not stopping some of them from doling out discipline with the palm of their hands even when researchers are listening in.

A new study in the American Psychological Association Journal of Family Psychology conducted by researches at Southern Methodist University used audio recording devices to track the behavior of parents with their kids.

Mothers were asked to wear Olympus digital voice recorders on their arms in a sport pouch (not exactly an easy thing to forget about) and turn it on when they returned from work, and back off again when their child fell asleep. After six days, 45 percent of the families studied had recorded incidents of corporal punishment, and some started on the very first night.

You can listen to some examples below, but they range from fairly innocuous infractions like “messing with” the pages of a book, to playing with a stove.

The study is considered a preliminary investigation of a potential model for further research that doesn’t just rely on self-reported information that can be riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies.

For example, who remembers what how many times they disciplined their child over the course of a year?

Southern Methodist University Professor George Holden, the lead on this project, explained that they solicited parents for a study that was specifically focused on recording yelling behavior as it occurred naturally in the home.

They found 56 people willing to participate, and of those, they studied 33. By the time these mothers returned from work and began dealing with their children, worrying about the recorder strapped to their arm was the least of their worries.

“A lot of parents, particularly in the south, think of it as a good technique to use. They were reared that way so they’ve developed this fundamental belief that spanking is the way to teach people right or wrong,” Holden said. “My guess is they weren’t bashful about using it.”

Read the full story, with audio.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, Grant W.O. Holland, Paul A. Williamson, SMU Department of Psychology

Categories
Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News

WFAA ABC News 8: Study — Parents spank kids more often than they admit

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date April 23, 2014

Book a live interview

To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

Related Links

George W. Holden
Journal of Family Psychology: “Eavesdropping on the Family: A Pilot Investigation of Corporal Punishment in the Home”
Media coverage of Holden research
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
2011 PRISM Award: George Holden
SMU Department of Psychology
Dedman College

More SMU Research news

Conventional vs. modern: Repertoire drives opera house identity, market share

Women have made strides for equality in society, but gender gap still exists in art museum directorships

Search for dark matter covers new ground with CDMS experiment in Minnesota

NOvA experiment glimpses neutrinos, one of nature’s most abundant, and elusive particles

$NetQuakes, Azle, SMU, fracking, study$ SMU scientists to deploy seismic monitors in North Texas region near Azle, Texas

TV journalist David Schechter with WFAA ABC News 8 covered the research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment. His story, “Study: Parents spank kids more often than they admit,” aired April 22.

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

See the full story.

EXCERPT:

by David Schechter
WFAA ABC News 8
New research from Southern Methodist University, based on recordings made of parents using corporal punishment, finds spanking and slapping are often used to punish minor behavior problems and did little to keep the same behavior from happening again — sometimes within 10 minutes.

For his research, Dr. George Holden deliberately chose many families with two working parents. He wanted to test people with real-world stresses.

One key finding was that parents typically under-report how often they spank or slap their children.

Holden, a vocal advocate against corporal punishment, made several audio clips from his research available. On the clips you can hear parents slapping or spanking their children for minor behavior infractions.

“If you hit the child or slap the child, they’re focusing on the punishment — the pain, the upset they felt from it,” Holden explained. “It’s not getting them to reflect on their behavior.”

See the full story.

Holden 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.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, Grant W.O. Holland, Paul A. Williamson, SMU Department of Psychology

Categories
Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News

WFAA ABC News 8: SMU study — Spanking doesn’t work

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date April 23, 2014

TV journalist Shelly Slater with WFAA ABC News 8 covered the research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment. Her interview, “SMU study: Spanking doesn’t work,” aired April 22.

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

Book a live interview

To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

Related Links

George W. Holden
Journal of Family Psychology: “Eavesdropping on the Family: A Pilot Investigation of Corporal Punishment in the Home”
Media coverage of Holden research
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
2011 PRISM Award: George Holden
SMU Department of Psychology
Dedman College

More SMU Research news

Conventional vs. modern: Repertoire drives opera house identity, market share

Women have made strides for equality in society, but gender gap still exists in art museum directorships

Search for dark matter covers new ground with CDMS experiment in Minnesota

NOvA experiment glimpses neutrinos, one of nature’s most abundant, and elusive particles

$NetQuakes, Azle, SMU, fracking, study$ SMU scientists to deploy seismic monitors in North Texas region near Azle, Texas

See the full story.

EXCERPT:

WFAA ABC News 8
It’s an age-old debate: Is spanking an effective way to control your child’s behavior?

Not according to a new study by a psychology professor at Southern Methodist University.

The spanking study followed 37 families. The mothers voluntarily recorded their evening interactions with their children over the course of six days. The results may surprise you.

Dr. George Holden led the study and joined News 8’s Shelly Slater to talk about his findings.

See the full story.

Holden 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.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, Grant W.O. Holland, Paul A. Williamson, SMU Department of Psychology

Categories
Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News

Minnesota Post: Parents often spank out of anger and for trivial reasons, real-time study finds

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date April 22, 2014

Journalist Susan Perry with the Minnesota Post covered the research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment. The article, “Parents often spank out of anger and for trivial reasons, real-time study finds,” published April 18.

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

Book a live interview

To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

Related Links

George W. Holden
Journal of Family Psychology: “Eavesdropping on the Family: A Pilot Investigation of Corporal Punishment in the Home”
Media coverage of Holden research
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
2011 PRISM Award: George Holden
SMU Department of Psychology
Dedman College

More SMU Research news

Conventional vs. modern: Repertoire drives opera house identity, market share

Women have made strides for equality in society, but gender gap still exists in art museum directorships

Search for dark matter covers new ground with CDMS experiment in Minnesota

NOvA experiment glimpses neutrinos, one of nature’s most abundant, and elusive particles

$NetQuakes, Azle, SMU, fracking, study$ SMU scientists to deploy seismic monitors in North Texas region near Azle, Texas

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:

By Susan Perry
Minnesota Post
Parents spank their children much more often than they admit and for trivial misbehaviors, suggest the just-published results of a study based on real-time home audio recordings.

The study also found that parents tend to strike their children out of anger and quite quickly after the children misbehaved — in other words, not as last resort.

Furthermore, the spanking doesn’t work. The children in the study who were hit or slapped by their parents typically misbehaved again within 10 minutes.

“From the audio, we heard parents hitting their children for the most extraordinarily mundane offenses, typically violations of social conventions,” said George Holden, the study’s lead researcher and a parenting and child development expert at Southern Methodist University, in a statement released with the study. “Also, corporal punishment wasn’t being used as a last resort. On average, parents hit or spanked just half a minute after the conflict began.”

If these findings sound familiar, it’s because Holden collected the data for this study a couple of years ago and publicly reported on them at that time. The findings were not officially published, however, until Monday, when they appeared in the Journal of Family Psychology.

Given the wide acceptance of parental corporal punishment in the United States, it seems important to highlight these findings again. Surveys suggest that as many as 80 percent of American parents use spanking to discipline their children, even, as inconceivable as it may sound, with infants.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, Grant W.O. Holland, Paul A. Williamson, SMU Department of Psychology

Categories
Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News

The Dallas Morning News: Study — Parents Hit Children For Trivial Reasons

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date April 22, 2014

Science journalist Anna Kuchment with The Dallas Morning News covered the research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment. The article, “Study: Parents Hit Children For Trivial Reasons,” published April 21.

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

Book a live interview

To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

Related Links

George W. Holden

Journal of Family Psychology: “Eavesdropping on the Family: A Pilot Investigation of Corporal Punishment in the Home”

Media coverage of Holden research

“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline“

2011 PRISM Award: George Holden

SMU Department of Psychology

Dedman College

More SMU Research news

Conventional vs. modern: Repertoire drives opera house identity, market share

Women have made strides for equality in society, but gender gap still exists in art museum directorships

Search for dark matter covers new ground with CDMS experiment in Minnesota

NOvA experiment glimpses neutrinos, one of nature’s most abundant, and elusive particles

$NetQuakes, Azle, SMU, fracking, study$ SMU scientists to deploy seismic monitors in North Texas region near Azle, Texas

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:

By Anna Kuchment
The Dallas Morning News
A new study suggests that three-quarters of parents who hit their children do so for “extraordinarily mundane” offenses, such as turning the pages of a storybook.

(Listen as a mother in the study slaps her child while reading to him. The child’s name has been bleeped out for privacy: Reading Slap)

The study, published in the online version of the Journal of Family Psychology followed 33 Dallas area mothers as they came home from work and prepared to put their children to bed. The mothers used voice recorders, which they wore in sport pouches on their upper arms, to chronicle their interactions with their families.

Those evening hours constitute “the most stressful time period of the day, when emotional spillover from prior events are likely and children are most at risk for [corporal punishment],” write the paper’s authors, who recruited families at local daycare and Head Start centers.

Forty-five percent of the families in the sample struck their children; many did so more than once over the course of four to six consecutive evenings. One family resorted to the practice 10 times.

“The fact that we heard [corporal punishment] as much as we did, and in limited time samples, underscores the fact that it is an extremely common practice,” says George Holden, a professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University and lead author of the study.

Nationwide, 70 percent to 90 percent of parents hit or slap their children, says Holden. The practice is especially common in the south, and the punishment is most often meted out by mothers, who tend to be the primary caregivers.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, Grant W.O. Holland, Paul A. Williamson, SMU Department of Psychology

Categories
Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News Student researchers

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

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date April 16, 2014

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.

Book a live interview

To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

Related Links

George W. Holden
Journal of Family Psychology: “Eavesdropping on the Family: A Pilot Investigation of Corporal Punishment in the Home”
Media coverage of Holden research
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
2011 PRISM Award: George Holden
SMU Department of Psychology
Dedman College

More SMU Research news

Conventional vs. modern: Repertoire drives opera house identity, market share

Women have made strides for equality in society, but gender gap still exists in art museum directorships

Search for dark matter covers new ground with CDMS experiment in Minnesota

NOvA experiment glimpses neutrinos, one of nature’s most abundant, and elusive particles

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.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, Grant W.O. Holland, Paul A. Williamson

Categories
Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News Student researchers

The Raw Story: Study — Spanking doesn’t work, but average 4-year-old is spanked 936 times per year anyway

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date April 16, 2014

Journalist Scott Kaufman with the internet news site The Raw Story covered the research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment. The article, “Spanking doesn’t work, but average 4-year-old is spanked 936 times per year anyway,” 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.

Book a live interview

To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

Related Links

George W. Holden
Journal of Family Psychology: “Eavesdropping on the Family: A Pilot Investigation of Corporal Punishment in the Home”
Media coverage of Holden research
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
2011 PRISM Award: George Holden
SMU Department of Psychology
Dedman College

More SMU Research news

Conventional vs. modern: Repertoire drives opera house identity, market share

Women have made strides for equality in society, but gender gap still exists in art museum directorships

Search for dark matter covers new ground with CDMS experiment in Minnesota

NOvA experiment glimpses neutrinos, one of nature’s most abundant, and elusive particles

$NetQuakes, Azle, SMU, fracking, study$ SMU scientists to deploy seismic monitors in North Texas region near Azle, Texas

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:

By Scott Kaufman
The Raw Story
New research published in the Journal of Family Psychology indicates not only that parents punish their children more frequently than they admit, but that the form of the punishment — spanking — is an ineffective means of behavioral modification.

The study analyzed real-time audio recordings of parents interacting with their children. The parents had been given guidelines: spank infrequently, only for serious misbehavior, and only as a last resort.

Thirty-three families were recorded for between four and six evenings, and in 90 percent of the incidents involving corporal punishment, the immediate cause was “noncompliance,” such as a refusal to stop sucking fingers, eating improperly, leaving the house without asking permission. In 49 percent of the spanking incidents, the parent sounded angry prior to initiating the spanking.

“The recordings show that most parents responded either impulsively or emotionally, rather than being intentional with their discipline,” lead author George Holden, a psychology professor at Southern Methodist University, said. On average, it only required 30 seconds for nonviolent discipline to escalate to corporal punishment.

“From the audio, we heard parents hitting their children for the most extraordinarily mundane offenses, typically violations of social conventions,” Holden added. “Also, corporal punishment wasn’t being used as a last resort. On average, parents hit or spanked just half a minute after the conflict began.”

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, Grant W.O. Holland, Paul A. Williamson, SMU Department of Psychology

Categories
Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Learning & Education Student researchers

Real-time audio of corporal punishment shows kids misbehave within 10 minutes of spanking

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date April 15, 2014

First-of-its-kind study finds that parents ignored best practices recommended by spanking advocates

Book a live interview

To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

Related Links

George W. Holden
Journal of Family Psychology: “Eavesdropping on the Family: A Pilot Investigation of Corporal Punishment in the Home”
Media coverage of Holden research
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
2011 PRISM Award: George Holden
SMU Department of Psychology
Dedman College

More SMU Research news

Conventional vs. modern: Repertoire drives opera house identity, market share

Women have made strides for equality in society, but gender gap still exists in art museum directorships

Search for dark matter covers new ground with CDMS experiment in Minnesota

NOvA experiment glimpses neutrinos, one of nature’s most abundant, and elusive particles

$NetQuakes, Azle, SMU, fracking, study$ SMU scientists to deploy seismic monitors in North Texas region near Azle, Texas

Parents less likely to spank after reading briefly about its links to problems in children

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 psychologist George 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.

“From the audio, we heard parents hitting their children for the most extraordinarily mundane offenses, typically violations of social conventions,” Holden said. “Also, corporal punishment wasn’t being used as a last resort. On average, parents hit or spanked just half a minute after the conflict began.”

Parents who used corporal punishment in the audio commonly violated three of the six “use” guidelines the researchers examined: Spank infrequently, use it only for serious misbehavior, and only as a last resort.

“The recordings show that most parents responded either impulsively or emotionally, rather than being intentional with their discipline,” said Holden, who favors humane alternatives to corporal punishment.

The findings are reported in “Eavesdropping on the Family: A Pilot Investigation of Corporal Punishment in the Home,” which was published online April 15 at http://bit.ly/1eLnRZs by the American Psychological Association before it appears in a final print and online issue of Journal of Family Psychology.

Parents agreed to wear tape recorders to capture home interactions
The unique recordings captured parent and child interactions in 33 families over the course of four to six evenings. Parents volunteered to wear the recorders; most were mothers who were home with their children after a day’s work. The recordings captured 41 instances of corporal punishment, mainly during everyday activities such as fixing supper and bathing children.

More than 80 percent of the moms were married and had completed more education than the general population. About 60 percent were white and worked outside the home, and their children averaged just shy of 4 years old.

In 90 percent of the incidents, noncompliance was the immediate cause, such as sucking fingers, eating improperly, getting out of a chair, and going outside without permission. In 49 percent of the incidents, the parent sounded angry prior to spanking or hitting. On average, less than 30 seconds elapsed from the time when parents initiated nonviolent discipline to when they used corporal punishment. In 30 of the 41 incidents, the children misbehaved again within 10 minutes of being hit or spanked. The youngest child hit was 7 months old. One mother hit her child 11 times in a row.

Most remarkably, the researchers noted an unusual finding: The rate of corporal punishment exceeded estimates in other studies, which relied on parents self-reporting. Those studies found that American parents of a 2-year-old typically report they spank or slap about 18 times a year.

“The average rate we observed using the real-time audio equates to an alarming 18 times a week,” said Holden, a professor in the SMU Department of Psychology who has carried out extensive research on spanking.

Holden co-authored the study with Paul A. Williamson and Grant W.O. Holland, also of SMU. Funding for the study was provided by the nonprofit Timberlawn Psychiatric Research Foundation, Dallas.

“Although spanking advocates may acknowledge these incidents as inappropriate use of corporal punishment, evidence indicates that mothers who report their child gets spanked are also more likely to report physical abuse of that child,” the authors noted. — Margaret Allen

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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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UPI: Parents can change mind on spanking if told it harms a child

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date January 29, 2014

The independent news wire service UPI covered the research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment. The article published Jan. 29, “Parents can change mind on spanking if told it harms a child.”

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.

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Child Abuse & Neglect: “Research Findings Can Change Attitudes About Corporal Punishment”
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
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He was recently elected president of Dallas’ oldest child abuse prevention agency, Family Compass.

Most recently his 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:

UPI
U.S. adults exposed to research on spanking showing subsequent child behavioral problems may change their discipline methods, researchers say.

Child psychologist George Holden of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who favors alternatives to corporal punishment, wanted to see if parents’ positive views toward spanking could be reversed if they were made aware of the existing research.

Holden and three SMU colleagues used a simple, fast, inexpensive method to briefly expose 118 college students to short research summaries that detailed spanking’s negative impact.

The summary consisted of several sentences describing the link between spanking and short- and long-term child behavior problems, including aggressive and delinquent acts, poor quality of parent-child relationships and an increased risk of child physical abuse.

Nearly 75 percent of the study subjects said after seeing the research they thought less favorably of spanking.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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The Times of India: Spanking your kids won’t make them disciplined

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date January 29, 2014

The independent news provider Indo-Asian News Service covered the research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment. The coverage published in a Jan. 29 article “Spanking your kids won’t make them disciplined” in The Times of India and in India’s Business Standard.

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.

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To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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George W. Holden
Child Abuse & Neglect: “Research Findings Can Change Attitudes About Corporal Punishment”
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
2011 PRISM Award: George Holden
SMU Department of Psychology
Dedman College

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

Most recently his 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:

Indo-Asian News Service
For parents who spank their children believing it’s an effective form of discipline, think again.

According to child psychologists, spanking is actually a harmful practice.

“Parents spank with good intentions – they believe it will promote good behaviour, and they don’t intend to harm the child. But research thinks otherwise,” said child psychologist George Holden, a professor in the Southern Methodist University’s department of psychology in Texas who has carried out extensive research on spanking.

Holden and her colleagues used a simple and inexpensive method to briefly expose participants to short research summaries that detailed spanking’s negative impact.

Carrying out two studies, one with non-parents and one with parents, Holden and his co-authors found that attitudes were significantly altered.

“These studies demonstrate that a brief exposure to research findings can reduce positive corporal punishment attitudes in parents and non-parents,” stressed Holden.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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Parents less likely to spank after reading briefly about its links to problems in children

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date January 21, 2014

Studies demonstrate that brief exposure to research findings can reduce positive corporal punishment attitudes in parents and non-parents

Parents who spank their children believe it’s an effective form of discipline. But decades of research studies have found that spanking is linked to short- and long-term child behavior problems.

Is there any way to get parents to change their minds and stop spanking? Child psychologist George Holden, who favors humane alternatives to corporal punishment, wanted to see if parents’ positive views toward spanking could be reversed if they were made aware of the research.

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To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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George W. Holden
Child Abuse & Neglect: “Research Findings Can Change Attitudes About Corporal Punishment”
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
2011 PRISM Award: George Holden
SMU Department of Psychology
Dedman College

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Holden and three colleagues at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, used a simple, fast, inexpensive method to briefly expose subjects to short research summaries that detailed spanking’s negative impact.

Carrying out two studies, one with non-parents and one with parents, Holden and his co-authors on the research found that attitudes were significantly altered.

“Parents spank with good intentions — they believe it will promote good behavior, and they don’t intend to harm the child. But research increasingly indicates that spanking is actually a harmful practice,” said Holden, lead author on the study. “These studies demonstrate that a brief exposure to research findings can reduce positive corporal punishment attitudes in parents and non-parents.”

The researchers believe the study is the first of its kind to find that brief exposure to spanking research can alter people’s views toward spanking. Previous studies in the field have relied on more intensive, time-consuming and costly methods to attempt to change attitudes toward spanking.

“If we can educate people about this issue of corporal punishment, these studies show that we can in a very quick way begin changing attitudes,” said Holden, a professor in the SMU Department of Psychology who has carried out extensive research on spanking.

The findings, “Research findings can change attitudes about corporal punishment,” have been published in the international journal of Child Abuse & Neglect.

Study probed attitudes, which research has found predict behaviors
Research has found that parents who spank believe spanking can make children behave or respect them. That belief drives parental behavior, more so than their level of anger, the seriousness of the child’s misbehavior or the parent’s perceived intent of the child’s misbehavior.

Additionally, parents form their opinions based on advice from others they trust, primarily their own parents, their spouse and pediatricians, followed by mental health workers, teachers, parent educators and religious leaders.

Two studies with parents and non-parents both find changed attitudes
In the first SMU study, the subjects were 118 non-parent college students divided into two groups: one that actively processed web-based information about spanking research; and one that passively read web summaries.

The summary consisted of several sentences describing the link between spanking and short- and long-term child behavior problems, including aggressive and delinquent acts, poor quality of parent-child relationships and an increased risk of child physical abuse.

The majority of the participants in the study, 74.6 percent, thought less favorably of spanking after reading the summary. Unexpectedly, the researchers said, attitude change was significant for both active and passive participants.

A second study replicated the first study, but with 263 parent participants, predominantly white mothers. The researchers suspected parents might be more resistant to change their attitudes. Parents already have established disciplinary practices, are more invested in their current practices and have sought advice from trusted individuals.

But the results indicated otherwise. After reading brief research statements on the web, 46.7 percent of the parents changed their attitudes and expressed less approval of spanking.

“Given the brevity of our intervention, the results are notable,” said the authors. “Our Web-based approach is less expensive, potentially quicker, and more easily scaled up to use at a community level.”

With spanking a public health concern, this approach offers a simple way to reach a large audience to change attitudes and reduce parents’ reliance on corporal punishment, said Holden, who was recently elected president of Dallas’ oldest child abuse prevention agency, Family Compass. For example, educational modules could be developed for high school students, the authors said.

Co-authors were: Alan S. Brown, professor, SMU Department of Psychology and department chair, SMU Department of Sociology; Austin S. Baldwin, assistant professor, SMU Department of Psychology; and Kathryn Croft Caderao, graduate student, SMU Department of Psychology. — Margaret Allen

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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Reuters: Physical punishment tied to aggression, hyperactivity

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date January 20, 2014

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To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

Related Links

George W. Holden
Child Abuse & Neglect: “Research Findings Can Change Attitudes About Corporal Punishment”
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
2011 PRISM Award: George Holden
SMU Department of Psychology
Dedman College

More SMU Research news

Wall Street’s short sellers wrongly maligned — detected red flags ahead of US financial crisis

A director’s skills, experiences and workload drive their compensation, SMU study finds

Gut reaction of marital partners could foretell their marriage satisfaction

Fossil supervolcano discovered in Italy by SMU-led team is now key feature of new UNESCO Geopark

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

Most recently his 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:

Kathleen Raven
Reuters
Regardless of the culture a child lives in, corporal punishment may do lasting psychological harm, German researchers say.

In a new study conducted in Tanzania, where physical punishment is considered normal, primary school students who were beaten by teachers or family members in the name of discipline tended to show more behavior problems, not fewer, the researchers found.

“Parents aim to educate children through corporal punishment, but instead of learning good social behaviors, the beatings often have the opposite effect,” said Tobias Hecker, a psychologist at the University of Konstanz, who led the study.

“Some people still believe, despite an overwhelming body of evidence, that corporal punishment in some cultures won’t result in as many negative effects,” George Holden told Reuters Health.

“But, as this study shows, it’s difficult to find support for that argument,” said Holden, a professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who was not involved in the study.

Past research, mainly in industrialized countries, has found that children and teens who experience corporal punishment may “externalize” their negative experiences in the form of bad behavior and emotional problems, Hecker and his colleagues write in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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The Washington Post: The end of spanking?

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date January 5, 2013

Journalist Steve Hendrix in a Jan. 3 article in The Washington Post, “The end of spanking?” quotes SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment.

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.

Most recently his 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.

Book a live interview

To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

Related Links

George W. Holden
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
Global Summit Conference blog
SMU Department of Psychology
Dedman College

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A professor in the SMU Psychology Department, Holden is a leading advocate for abolishing corporal punishment in schools and homes and led organization of the 2011 Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline in Dallas.

For his outstanding dedication and service to the mental health needs of children and adolescents, Holden was honored Sept. 21, 2011 with The Lightner Sams Foundation Child Advocate Award presented by Mental Health America of Greater Dallas.

Read the full story; registration required.

EXCERPT:

By Steve Hendrix
The Washington Post
George Holden envisions a world without spanking. No more paddling in the principal’s office. No more swats on little rear ends, not even — and here is where Holden knows he is staring up at a towering cliff of parental rights resistance — not even in the privacy of the home. When it comes to disciplining a child, Holden’s view is absolute: No hitting.

“We don’t like to call it spanking,” said Holden, a professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University and head of a newly formed organization aimed at eliminating corporal punishment in the United States. “Spanking is a euphemism that makes it sound like hitting is a normal part of parenting. If we re-label it hitting, which is what it is, people step back and ask themselves, ‘Should I be hitting my child?’ ”

For centuries, of course, the answer to that question has been yes for a huge majority of families. We’ve been unsparing of the rod, spanking our children just as we were spanked by our parents. And there’s precious little evidence to suggest we feel much differently today. While the percentage of parents who say it’s okay to occasionally spank a child has declined marginally in recent years, that “acceptability level” still hovers between 65 percent and 75 percent nationally.

And surveys that measure actual behavior reveal even higher rates of moms and dads willing to whack. Depending on how you ask the question, most surveys show that between 70 percent and 90 percent of parents in this country spank their kids at least once during childhood. In 2013 America, spanking a child is about as common as vaccinating one.

But Holden and a growing number of children’s advocates still believe the time is right for a serious effort to end corporal punishment. For some in the burgeoning stop-hitting movement, the goal is nothing less than a total legal ban on spanking in all settings, as has been passed by 33 nations in Europe, Latin America and Africa (soon to be 34 when Brazil becomes the largest country to outlaw spanking in final action expected this year).

Read the full story; registration required.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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Post-Gazette: Study points to downside of spanking children

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date July 3, 2012

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Journalist Sanjena Sathian in a July 2 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Study points to downside of spanking children” quotes SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment.

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.

Most recently he’s done research that provides 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.

A professor in the SMU Psychology Department, Holden is a leading advocate for abolishing corporal punishment in schools and homes and led organization of the 2011 Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline in Dallas.

For his outstanding dedication and service to the mental health needs of children and adolescents, Holden was honored Sept. 21, 2011 with The Lightner Sams Foundation Child Advocate Award presented by Mental Health America of Greater Dallas.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Sanjena Sathian
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Parents today receive differing advice about how to raise their children. But one piece of wisdom is increasingly consistent: Spanking is almost never the right way to discipline your child, according to doctors and most child development experts.

When Jennifer Chianese, a pediatrician at Children’s Community Pediatrics who practices in Cranberry and Squirrel Hill, advises parents not to spank, she tells them it is ineffective and can have negative psychological consequences.

And those effects can be long term: According to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, adults who were spanked as children are more likely to develop mental disorders, including depression and substance abuse problems.

“There’s still a socially accepted belief that … you should use physical force and shouldn’t be too ‘lenient’ on your children,” said Tracie Afifi, an epidemiologist at the University of Manitoba in Canada and lead author of the study. Though 32 countries have abolished a parent’s right to use physical punishment, it is still legal to hit children in the United States and Canada, the study shows. […]

[…] And effects of spanking can show up even earlier. George Holden, a vocal anti-spanking advocate and professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said children who are spanked are more likely to bully their peers.

Even the threat of spanking might be harmful, said Deborah Gilboa, a mother of four and a physician at Squirrel Hill Health Center.

“Living with fear has negative consequences. We know that kids can grow up to be adults with PTSD if they live with true fear,” she said, referring to post-traumatic stress syndrome. She added that joking about punishment is fine — as long as there is no true intent to hit children.

Read the full story.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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USA Today: Despite opposition, paddling students allowed in 19 states

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date April 24, 2012

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To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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USA Today in an April 22 article “Despite opposition, paddling students allowed in 19 states” interviewed SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial practice of corporal punishment.

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.

Most recently he’s done research that provides 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.

A professor in the SMU Psychology Department, Holden is a leading advocate for abolishing corporal punishment in schools and homes and led organization of the 2011 Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline in Dallas.

For his outstanding dedication and service to the mental health needs of children and adolescents, Holden was honored Sept. 21, 2011 with The Lightner Sams Foundation Child Advocate Award presented by Mental Health America of Greater Dallas.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Alison Bath
USA Today

The details about what led to Trey Clayton being paddled by the assistant principal of his Mississippi high school are in dispute, but there is no question about what happened moments after the March 2011 incident.

Just steps out of the office, Trey fainted. The 14-year-old’s resulting fall — face first onto the concrete floor — split his chin open, fractured his jaw and shattered five teeth, says Trey’s attorney, Joseph Murray.

Corporal punishment — typically swats with a wooden paddle on the backside of a student — is banned in most of the nation. However, 19 states, mostly in the South, still allow it, according to the Center for Effective Discipline, a group that seeks to abolish corporal punishment in U.S. schools. …

… That use of corporal punishment is rooted in a strong Bible Belt belief in the proverbial “spare the rod and spoil the child,” says George Holden, a Southern Methodist University psychology professor. It’s reinforced by Southern sensibilities that favor obedience and respect for authority, he says.

“Most people were spanked when they were kids, and they think that’s the proper way to discipline,” says Holden, chairman of the 2011 Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline. “They make the erroneous correlation that spanking equals good discipline and if a child isn’t behaving, he must not have been spanked enough — that’s fallacious.”

Read the full story.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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Fox 4 News: To spank or not to spank?

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date March 2, 2012

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To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

Fox 4 News in its Feb. 28 segment “Spare the Rod” interviewed SMU psychologist George W. Holden about the controversial parenting book “To Train Up A Child.”

The book, written by a Tennessee pastor and his wife who are advocates of spanking, has been implicated in several child deaths at the hands of parents who claimed to be using corporal punishment in line with guidelines from the book.

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.

Most recently he’s done research that provides 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.

A professor in the SMU Psychology Department, Holden is a leading advocate for abolishing corporal punishment in schools and homes and led organization of the 2011 Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline in Dallas.

For his outstanding dedication and service to the mental health needs of children and adolescents, Holden was honored Sept. 21, 2011 with The Lightner Sams Foundation Child Advocate Award presented by Mental Health America of Greater Dallas.

Watch the Fox 4 segment.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

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SMU News: 2012 Research Day at Southern Methodist University

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date February 14, 2012

SMU News covered the annual 2012 Research Day on Feb. 10 where SMU graduate and undergraduate students presented results of their research studies.

Sponsored by SMU’s Office of Research and Graduate Studies, the event sought to foster communication between students in different programs, give students the opportunity to present their work in formats they will use as professionals, and to share with the SMU community and others the outstanding research being done at the University.

The students presented their studies on posters, and were available to discuss their findings and the significance of the research.

Related Links

Office of Research and Graduate Studies
SMU PhD Graduates
Student Profiles

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Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

Among the projects at the event were:

Psychology student Vanessa Rae Stevens (under Professor Alicia Meuret) is studying whether people with tattoos and body piercings are also prone to intentional self injury by cutting, scratching, burning, etc.

Psychology student Grant Holland (under Professor George Holden) is studying recordings of interactions between mothers and their children with an eye toward better understanding the effects of tone-of-voice on behavior at bedtime.

Statistics student Holly Stovall (under Professor Lynne Stokes) is examining how to more precisely measure success in teaching programs for No Child Left Behind.

Earth sciences student Mary Milleson (under Professor Neil Tabor) is using core samples taken from Dallas’s White Rock Lake to gain a better understanding of how the growing urbanization of the area over the last 100 years is affecting the lake.

Computer science student Ruili Geng (under Professors Jeff Tian and Liguo Huang) is researching how to make the performance of the web and cloud computing more dependable.

Physics students Bedile Karabuga and Mayisha Zeb Nakib (under Professor Jodi Cooley-Sekula) are examining a specific technique for identifying dark matter.
For more information, contact the Office of Research and Graduate Studies at 214-768-4345 or smugrad@smu.edu.

Read the full story.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Alicia E. Meuret, George W. Holden, Grant Holland, Holly Stovall, Jeff Tian, Liguo Huang, Lyle School of Engineering, Lynne Stokes, Mary Milleson, Neil Tabor, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Ruili Geng, SMU Department of Psychology, SMU Department of Statistical Science, Vanessa Rae Stevens

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Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Learning & Education Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News

Time Healthland: Why Spanking Doesn’t Work

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date February 9, 2012

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To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
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Time reporter Bonnie Rochman acknowledged the research and expertise of SMU psychologist George W. Holden in her article on new research into spanking published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Holden is an expert in families and child development. Most recently he’s done research that provides 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.

A professor in the SMU Psychology Department, Holden is a leading advocate for abolishing corporal punishment in schools and homes and led organization of the 2011 Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline in Dallas.

For his outstanding dedication and service to the mental health needs of children and adolescents, Holden was honored Sept. 21 with The Lightner Sams Foundation Child Advocate Award presented by Mental Health America of Greater Dallas.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Bonnie Rochman
Time: Healthland
Want your kid to stop whatever dangerous/annoying/forbidden behavior he’s doing right now? Spanking will probably work — for now.

But be prepared for that same child to be more aggressive toward you and his siblings, his friends and his eventual spouse. Oh, and get ready for some other antisocial behaviors too.

A new analysis of two decades of research on the long-term effects of physical punishment in children concludes that spanking doesn’t work and can actually wreak havoc on kids’ long-term development, according to an article published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Yet, as I wrote last summer in a story about the first real-time study of parents spanking their children, some research has found that up to 90% of parents say they use corporal punishment:

Despite a battery of disciplinary techniques, including the infamous “time out,” redirection and the increasing emphasis on positive discipline (try substituting “hold the cup carefully” for “don’t spill your juice”), spanking and slapping are still pretty popular.

Moms and dads who spank do so because they believe it’s effective, and research actually shows that it is — in the short term. A child reaching for a tempting object will stop if he gets swatted. “It does work in the immediate moment, but beyond that, in most cases, it’s very ineffective,” says George Holden, the study’s author and a professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University. “The most common long-term consequence is that children learn to use aggression.”

Case in point: one mother in the study hit her toddler after the toddler either hit or kicked the mother, admonishing, “This is to help you remember not to hit your mother.”

“The irony is just amazing,” says Holden.

In some countries, spanking is not a choice. Durrant is currently living in Sweden, where she’s researching child-and-family policies and the evolution of that country’s law prohibiting physical discipline of children. In 1979, Sweden was the first country to pass such legislation; now 32 countries — including much of Europe, Costa Rica, Israel, Tunisia and Kenya — have a similar law.

Read the full story.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

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Bloomberg Businessweek: End of Days

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date February 9, 2012

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To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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George W. Holden
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
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More SMU Research news

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From ‘Green Card’ to ‘Thin Blue Line’: Lawtalk research looks at popular legal expressions

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Bloomberg Businessweek journalist Tim Murphy invited SMU psychologist George W. Holden to weigh in on the impact of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s controversial decision to extend the elementary school day from less than six hours a day to seven and a half.

Holden is an expert in families and child development. Most recently he’s done research that provides 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.

A professor in the SMU Psychology Department, Holden is a leading advocate for abolishing corporal punishment in schools and homes and led organization of the 2011 Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline in Dallas.

For his outstanding dedication and service to the mental health needs of children and adolescents, Holden was honored Sept. 21 with The Lightner Sams Foundation Child Advocate Award presented by Mental Health America of Greater Dallas.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

Like Parent, Like Child
By Tim Murphy
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently incurred the wrath of the city’s teachers’ union when he lengthened the elementary school day, starting next year, to seven and a half hours from less than six. One can only imagine that when those kids finally bust free, they’ll be 90 minutes crazier than schoolkids are everywhere on weekdays come 3 p.m.-ish. And that final-bell madness can extend to parents and nannies picking them up. “It’s a challenging time of day because everyone is tired and people want to get home, but often children have stories to tell about what happened that day,” says George W. Holden, a psychology professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and author of Parenting: A Dynamic Perspective.

Recently, Bloomberg Businessweek observed school pickup at five top elementary schools in the New York area—the Upper East Side’s Dalton School, the Upper West Side’s Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Greenwich Village’s P.S. 41, Tribeca’s P.S. 234, and Park Slope’s P.S. 321 in Brooklyn. Then we ran our impressions by Holden and three other experts: Patti Wood, author of the forthcoming Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions; Joe Navarro, author of What Every Body is Saying; and Adam Mansbach, parent of a pre-K’er and author of the cult-hit “children’s” book Go the F— to Sleep. Here is our semi-scientific taxonomy of school pickup behaviors and what the pros think they mean. Brace yourself, Windy City.

The “Talk”: 5%*
Teachers pull parents aside to discuss hitting or other infractions. Navarro: “There are always parents for whom school pickup isn’t a happy event because of incidents like this.” Holden: “Kids who are spanked are more likely to hit other kids.” Mansbach: “I’ve been the recipient of that news. My impulse is to ask, ‘Well, how did her jab look?’ ”

*of people observed

Read the full story.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

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CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360: Should Children Be Spanked?

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date November 14, 2011

1 Comment on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360: Should Children Be Spanked?

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To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
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Television talk show host Anderson Cooper invited SMU psychologist George W. Holden to weigh in recently on the wisdom and effectiveness of spanking as a way to discipline children.

Holden, an expert in child development, has done research that provides 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.

A professor in the SMU Psychology Department, Holden is a leading advocate for abolishing corporal punishment in schools and homes and led organization of the 2011 Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline in Dallas.

For his outstanding dedication and service to the mental health needs of children and adolescents, Holden was honored Sept. 21 with The Lightner Sams Foundation Child Advocate Award presented by Mental Health America of Greater Dallas.

See excerpts and transcripts from the show segment.

EXCERPT:

Anderson Cooper 360
Approximately 70-90% of parents use spanking as a disciplinary tactic, says Dr. Holden, Professor of Psychology at Southern Methodist University. This is especially concerning, says Holden, because he’s convinced that any form of hitting a child, whether it be slapping or spanking, is wrong.

“Does this actually make kids more obedient?” asks Anderson.

“It doesn’t,” says Holden, who has studied the effects of spanking for years. “It’s undermining. One-hundred-fifty years ago in this country, husbands were hitting wives when the wives were disobedient,” says Holden. “We now think that’s shocking, and we’d never allow that anymore. I’d like to suggest that us hitting kids is the same thing. We’re assaulting children. They have a right not to be hit.”

See excerpts and transcripts from the show segment.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

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USA Today: Beating video sparks talks on discipline of children

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date November 4, 2011

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To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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USA Today reporter Sharon Jayson interviewed SMU psychologist George W. Holden for an article about the Texas judge who beat his disabled daughter for illegally downloading music on the Internet. Holden is an expert in families and child development.

A professor in the SMU Psychology Department, Holden is a leading advocate for abolishing corporal punishment in schools and homes and recently led organization of the Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline.

For his outstanding dedication and service to the mental health needs of children and adolescents, Holden will be honored Sept. 21 with The Lightner Sams Foundation Child Advocate Award presented by Mental Health America of Greater Dallas.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Sharon Jayson
USA Today
A video of a Texas judge punishing his daughter has led to investigations of the belt-wielding father and also launched a national conversation about discipline and spanking.

The graphic video of Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams hitting his then-16-year-old daughter for seven minutes as discipline for her use of an illegal computer file-sharing program has been viewed on YouTube more than 2.4 million times. Hillary Adams, now 23, posted the 2004 video.

Her father issued a statement saying she posted it after he threatened to end her financial support.
Local police and a state judicial panel are investigating, the Associated Press reported.

“This sort of voyeurism is an interesting situation, because the tape was surreptitiously made by the daughter,” psychologist George Holden says. “People may find it fascinating too because spanking is part of our culture, but this is clearly an incident where it’s gone way, way wrong.”

Holden, of Southern Methodist University, says he is launching a new organization, the U.S. Alliance to End Hitting of Children.
“What that father did is pretty horrific and it’s clearly not discipline,” says Elizabeth Gershoff, an associate professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Texas-Austin. “If that judge had done that to any other person … he would have gone to jail.”

She says the father wasn’t teaching a lesson but releasing anger.

Read the full story.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

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Boston NPR: Researchers Catch Parents Spanking On Tape

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date October 7, 2011

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To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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George W. Holden
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
Global Summit Conference blog
SMU Department of Psychology
Dedman College

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SMU to help solve dangerous refugee water issues

Anthropology researcher to study human-fire-climate interactions

White favoritism by Major League umpires lowers minority pitcher performance, pay

Boston National Public Radio station WBUR interviewed SMU Psychologist George W. Holden about his research on corporal punishment for its “Here & Now” program.

A professor in the SMU Psychology Department, Holden is a leading advocate for abolishing corporal punishment in schools and homes and recently led organization of the Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline.

For his outstanding dedication and service to the mental health needs of children and adolescents, Holden will be honored Sept. 21 with The Lightner Sams Foundation Child Advocate Award presented by Mental Health America of Greater Dallas.

Listen to the interview

EXCERPT:

WBUR News
Do you remember being spanked as a kid? To parents out there, do you ever spank your kids?

Researchers at Southern Methodist University have captured on tape what’s thought to be the first real-time data of parents using the punishment method and have some surprising findings.

George Holden, professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University told Here & Now’s Robin Young that, “Parents will typically say, yes, I believe in spanking, but I just use it as a last resort. And what we are finding is parents are using it for very trivial incidents.”

While fewer parents spank their kids than a generation ago, research shows that about 60 percent of parents spank their children aged 3 to 11 and nearly 80 percent of parents spank or slap their 3 to 5 year-olds.

Holden started looking at the effects of spanking after he had initially set out to study the impact of parents’ yelling at their kids, and instead was surprised to find how often spanking was used.

On Here & Now’s Facebook page, readers weighted in with a range of opinions:

Listen to the interview

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags George W. Holden, SMU Department of Psychology

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New York Times: Is Spanking a Black and White Issue?

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date August 29, 2011

The New York Times asked SMU Psychologist George W. Holden to give his opinion on corporal punishment for the newspaper’s “Room for Debate” column.

A professor in the SMU Psychology Department, Holden is a leading advocate for abolishing corporal punishment in schools and homes and recently led organization of the Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline.

For his outstanding dedication and service to the mental health needs of children and adolescents, Holden will be honored Sept. 21 with The Lightner Sams Foundation Child Advocate Award presented by Mental Health America of Greater Dallas.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:
By George W. Holden

The question of who spanks their children and who doesn’t goes far beyond race. Psychological and sociological studies on child-rearing disparities between black and white parents don’t provide clear answers: Although many studies find that black parents do spank more often, other research finds no differences between races.

Parents most adamantly committed to spanking tend to be from the South; they have less education and less wealth, and they experience more stress.

More revealing are the studies that take into account other critical factors, like the parents’ upbringing, stress levels, religious beliefs, socioeconomic status and region of the country. These have shown that parents most adamantly committed to the practice of spanking tend to be from the South. They have less education and less wealth, and they experience more stress. They are likely to take literally the Proverbs’ call for a “rod of correction,” and they typically were spanked by their own parents.

Parents who spank — black or white — do so because they inaccurately believe that corporal punishment results in improved child behavior. The pressure to spank can be loud and forceful, amplified by frustrating child behavior and unexamined child-rearing assumptions, along with misguided advice from extended family members, neighbors, teachers and preachers.

Yet research on the consequences of spanking children of every race could not be more clear. Beyond its immediate impact on behavior, spanking increases children’s long-term aggression toward peers and others. Parents who spank are, in fact, modeling violent behavior, which young children in my own studies have described as unfair and ineffective. Spanking also is linked to a host of harmful effects on children’s well-being: increased anxiety and depression, impaired cognitive development and academic performance, lower self-esteem and, sometimes, bruises and broken bones.

Read the full story.

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To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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Tags George W. Holden, Paul Williamson, SMU Department of Psychology

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KDAF: Dallas Parents Recorded Spanking Kids

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date July 14, 2011

Book a live interview

To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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George W. Holden
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
Global Summit Conference blog
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KDAF reporter Giselle Phelps covered the corporal punishment research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden, a professor in the SMU Psychology Department, and Paul Williamson, an SMU doctoral student in psychology.

The research provides 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, said Holden.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Giselle Phelps
KDAF
The sound of Dallas parents caught on tape spanking their kids is making its way around the country. It’s part of what’s being called the first real-time spanking study.

SMU Professor George Holden recruited a group of parents from daycare centers around town to study yelling in the home. He says he didn’t plan to look at corporal punishment — until the audio recordings came back.

Candice and Chuck Pearson say they spank their kids.

“I believe that spanking actually helps them have more discipline; sometimes no is just not enough,” said spanking supporter Candice Pearson.

But according to SMU Psychology professor George Holden, most parents who spank are doing it wrong.

He says new audio he’s recorded proves it. Holden had 37 Dallas-area parents wear audio recorders on their arms for six nights straight. He says they captured several spankings, ranging from mild to the not-so-mild.

“Another mom, in one instance, hit the child 11 times for a behavior,” Holden said.

Holden says if you’re going to spank, these are the guidelines spanking supporters say parents should follow:

Read the full story.

Tags George W. Holden, Paul Williamson, SMU Department of Psychology

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ABC News: Parents Caught Spanking Children on Audiotape Real Time

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date July 1, 2011

Book a live interview

To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

Related Links

George W. Holden
“Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline”
Global Summit Conference blog
SMU Department of Psychology
Dedman College

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ABC News, CBS News, Dallas Observer and other outlets have covered the corporal punishment research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden, a professor in the SMU Psychology Department, and Paul Williamson, an SMU doctoral student in psychology.

The research provides 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, said Holden.

ABC News show Good Morning America reporter Susan Donaldson James reported “Parents Caught Spanking Children on Audiotape Real Time.”

EXCERPT:
By Susan Donaldson James
ABC News

Researcher George Holden set off to study how often parents yelled at their children, but after listening to 36 hours of real-time audiotapes he heard something else; the cracks of spanking and the screams that followed.

Most of the behavioral incidents were “petty” in nature, according Holden, a professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University in Texas, but the punishment was “virtually all highly inappropriate.”

In one incident recorded on tape, a mother spanked her 3-year-old 11 times for fighting with his sister and the boy is reduced to tears and coughing. One child was punished for not cleaning his room. Another was slapped for being overzealous during a bedtime story by pointing and turning the page.

“They were pretty shocking,” said Holden, who has written five books on child development.

“They highlight that so much of corporal punishment are misguided notions of parenting that are bad for the child,” he said. “It’s sad that a parent inadvertently ruins the quality of their relationship by jumping on the child for being a normal kid.”

Read the full story.

Reporter Stephanie Lucero at CBS News local affiliate Channel 11 aired a segment about the research titled “SMU Study Shows Many Parents Still Spank Kids.”

EXCERPT:
By Stephanie Lucero
CBS News

A study conducted in North Texas shows that many mothers spank their children, and researchers say many of the reasons for those spankings are relatively minor disciplinary issues.

Dr. George Holden, Psychologist and Professor in the Psychology Department at Southern Methodist University says he initially set out to examine parents who yell at their children. But early evaluation of audio tapes showed that the parents who admitted yelling at their children also spanked them.

“We’re finding a lot of variability. Some parents slapped once. One parent hit the child 11 times in a row,” says Holden.

Holden admits he is opposed to any form of corporal punishment and he says virtually all experts say it is not beneficial to spank children. This study examined parents who have children between the ages of two and five years old. Holden says this is the first study evaluating spanking in which audio recordings were used to document the events taking place in the home.

Read the full story.

The Dallas Observer’s Robert Wilonsky also covered the research with his article “The Spanking Study: SMU Prof Allowed to Listen In as Dallas Parents Discipline Kids.”

EXCERPT:
By Robert Wilonsky
Dallas Observer

SMU psychology professor George Holden spends most of his time “understanding the determinants and significance of the parent-child relationship in development,” says his Hilltop curriculum vitae, which is loaded with books and studies on the subject. Among the suggested-reading list: “Children’s Assessments of Corporal Punishment and Other Disciplinary Practices: The Role of Age, Race, SES, and Exposure to Spanking,” published last year.

But Holden’s likely to garner significant attention for his latest look-see at spanking: “Real Life Mother-Child Interaction in the Home,” made possible after “36 mothers and one father at Dallas day care centers agreed to leave a tape running between the time they got home and put the kids to bed,” according to Good Morning America but moments ago. They then turned over the tapes to the prof, who makes some of the audio available on the other side; says Holden, some of the tapes — including what you hear after the jump — “were pretty shocking.”

Read the full story.

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babble.com: Do Most Parents Spank or Hit Their Kids?

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date June 29, 2011

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The AOL Lifestyle news magazine Parentdish, in addition to babble.com and The Washington Post have all covered the corporal punishment research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden, a professor in the SMU Psychology Department, and Paul Williamson, an SMU doctoral student in psychology.

The research provides 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, said Holden.

AOL Lifestyle reporter Tom Henderson on the parentdish blog wrote “Study Attempts Accurate Portrait of Spanking”:

EXCERPT:
By Tom Henderson
AOL Parentdish

Sometimes you have to smack a kid.

Sure, some liberal hippie parents pitch a fit whenever a kid is spanked, but on the front lines of parenthood, you can’t afford to go soft.

Do you want your kid to grow up to some kind of … of … page toucher?

You know the type. They go around touching the pages of books you are trying to read to them. Better a slap on the tuckus now than to let them grow up some kind of social miscreant.

At least one mother — involved in a research project at Southern Methodist University in Dallas — understands that. Some 40 parents were asked to make audio recordings of their daily interactions with their children.

Researchers didn’t exactly come right out and say this (because they wanted parents to act naturally), but they really wanted to find out how parents spank their children and raise their voices.

The tale of the tape says a lot. Take the Curious Case of the Terrible Toucher.

Read the full story

On the award winning online magazine babble.com, psychotherapist and reporter Heather Turgeon reported in the site’s Stroller Derby column “Do Most Parents Spank or Hit Their Kids?”

EXCERPT:
By Heather Turgeon
www.babble.com

Most parents spank their kids — I was truly surprised to hear this statement today, via an article in Time.com’s Healthland. Was I naive in thinking that with all our focus on child-centered parenting philosophies and positive discipline, that spanking was solidly out of style?

Not so, says George Holden, a professor of psychology who is now analyzing data on a new study in which he captured video of parents hitting their children — all voluntary participants who agreed to have their daily lives and interactions taped.

His earlier research found that 70 percent of college educated women spank their kids. That data was from the 1990’s, but writer Bonnie Rochman reports for Time that some studies have shown up to 90 percent of parents use corporal punishment.

Some of the examples from Holden’s current study were shocking: for example a woman hitting her toddler and saying “This is to help you remember not to hit your mother.”

“The irony is just amazing,” said Holden.

Are most parents really hitting their kids? What’s happening here?

According to Holden, parents who spank do it because they think it works. In the short term, sure swatting a child for touching the electrical outlets will probably make that child less likely to do that exact action again in the near future. But in the long run, of course (and I thought we all knew this?) what it really demonstrates is that physical aggression is an acceptable tool for expressing yourself. Why wouldn’t you expect a child to go straight out and use that too herself later on?

Read the full story

The Washington Post’s On Parenting blog wrote:

EXCERPT:
The Washington Post

Small infractions, like turning the page of a book too early, often led parents to hit their children, says research by psychologist George Holden on spanking. Holden, the author of five books on parenting and child development, says spanking works in the short term, but has the long-term consequence of teaching children aggression.

Read the entry

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Time: The First Real-Time Study of Parents Spanking Their Kids

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date June 28, 2011

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Time.com covered the corporal punishment research of SMU psychologist George W. Holden, a professor in the Psychology Department, and Paul Williamson, an SMU doctoral student in psychology.

The online magazine’s family and parenting reporter, Bonnie Rochman, interviewed Holden for her June 28 “Healthland” column.

The research provides 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, said Holden.

Read the full story

EXCERPT:

By Bonnie Rochman
Time.com
It’s not P.C. to admit you spank your child. But nearly 40 moms have gone a step further, recording themselves hitting and slapping their kids as part of a new study on how parents and children interact.

They didn’t know they were going to be in a study about spanking per se. Researchers have to be careful when presenting their proposed area of study to potential participants — too much information can lead people to alter their normal behavior, which would skew results. So when George Holden, a professor of psychology at Southern Methodist University who has published five books on parenting and child development, went to day-care centers in Dallas to recruit parents, he divulged only that he wanted to collect data about naturally occurring parent-child interaction.

In fact, Holden didn’t even know he’d be studying spanking. He originally set out to study yelling, via voluntary audio recordings of parents conducting life at home — the pedestrian stuff of parenting like meal prep, bath time and lights out.

Not all parents who volunteered were accepted. Researchers eliminated those who reported during a screening interview that they never yelled at home. “There weren’t many,” notes Holden, who presented the research this month in Dallas at the Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline.

Here’s the twist: in the course of analyzing the data collected from 37 families — 36 mothers and one father, all of whom recorded up to 36 hours of audio in six days of study — researchers heard the sharp cracks and dull thuds of spanking, followed in some cases by minutes of crying. They’d inadvertently captured evidence of corporal punishment, as well as the tense moments before and the resolution after, leading researchers to believe they’d amassed the first-ever cache of real-time spanking data.

Read the full story

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Corporal punishment: Mothers’ self-recorded audio gives unique real-time view of spanking

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date June 22, 2011

Mothers’ self-recorded audio gives unique real-time view of spanking within the context of day-to-day activity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISIc_DbHRzk

But occasionally conflict erupts, sometimes followed by corporal punishment.

The data go to the heart of the long-running debate over whether parents should spank their children.

“In the case where the child was slapped for grabbing a book, it was not 10 seconds later he did it again,” said Holden. “The amazing thing is, the mom was reading so nicely to the child and the child was being so normal, reaching for the book or wanting to turn the page or point to something.”

Believed to be first audio data of naturally occurring spanking

With its “event-sampling” approach, the research is a unique opportunity to understand what’s going on in the life of a family before spanking, including whether conflict gradually escalates or instead blows up out of nowhere, Holden said. It also reveals what occurs with spanking, such as verbal reprimands, admonitions, yelling or time-out.

“Despite the fact there have been hundreds of studies on spanking, I think with these audio recordings we have the first data of naturally occurring spanking,” said Holden, who has published five books and more than 55 scientific papers on parenting and child development.

“Virtually all previous studies have relied on verbal reports, either asking parents how often they spank, and a few asking children how they felt about being spanked,” he said. “This study is not affected or biased by memory or attitudes or orientations toward discipline because it’s what’s happening in the home.”

The research, “Investigating Actual Incidents of Spanking in the Home,” was presented June 3-4 at the international conference “Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline” in Dallas.

Holden, a professor in the SMU Department of Psychology, was a conference organizer and is an advocate of positive alternatives to spanking as cited in his psychology textbook “Parenting: A Dynamic Perspective” (Sage Publications Inc., 2010).

Chaotic interactions indicate parents didn’t alter practices

Participants in the study included families of various ethnicities, ranging from affluent to middle income to poor, said Paul Williamson, a researcher on the study. Acts of corporal punishment also varied, from spanking with a belt to admonishing children while hitting, said Williamson, an SMU psychology doctoral student.

“One interaction in particular, a child of 2 or 3 years of age had either been hitting or kicking her mother, and in response the mother either spanks the child or slaps the child on the hand and says, ‘That’ll teach you not to hit your mother,'” Williamson said. “We’ve captured interactions with families that are very chaotic. Some of them are actually quite difficult to listen to. That tells us, at least for some families, they’re not inhibiting or suppressing the kinds of parenting practices they use.”

Spanking and negative unintended consequences

Researchers invited mothers to participate in the study through fliers distributed at day-care centers, said Williamson. Mothers were informed of the study’s purpose to look at parent-child interactions. The mothers agreed to wear the audio recording devices each evening for up to six days. “We’re finding a wide range of reactions to the spanking,” Holden said. “Some children don’t appear to react, whereas the majority react with crying, some tantruming and some whimpering that can go from just a few seconds, to our longest is about 75 seconds.” Parents didn’t shy from talking with the researchers about spanking and their belief that it’s effective and necessary discipline, the researchers said. “So many parents believe in the technique and are not defensive about their use of it,” Holden said. “They erroneously believe it’s a useful technique to raise well-behaved kids.” Spanking widespread globally, despite harm to children From 70 percent to 90 percent of parents spank their children, and it’s practiced in the vast majority of countries worldwide, Holden said. Studies have shown that its single positive effect is immediate compliance. Increasingly, however, the evidence is clear that spanking is associated with many unintended negative consequences, he said.

“Children who are spanked are more likely to be aggressive toward other children and adults,” Holden said. “Over the long term they tend to be more difficult and noncompliant, have various behavior problems, can develop anxiety disorders or depression, and later develop antisocial behavior. They are more at risk to be involved in intimate partner violence, and they are at risk to become child abusers.”

The discipline also can escalate, Holden said.

“We know that the majority of physical child abuses cases actually begin with a disciplinary encounter that then gets out of control,” he said. “So for that reason alone, it’s not a good idea to use corporal punishment.”

The researchers hope their study ultimately will help parents use positive discipline and less punishment, he said. “It’s not the once or twice a year that a child may be swatted, but it’s the kids who are exposed to frequent corporal punishment — that is the concern,” Holden said. “Kids need discipline, but centered on mutual respect and love, without potentially harming the child with corporal punishment.” Besides Holden and Williamson, other researchers included Grant Holland, SMU psychology graduate student, and Rose Dunn, an SMU psychology department graduate. The study was funded by Timberlawn Psychiatric Research Foundation in Dallas.

The “Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline” was sponsored by Southern Methodist University, the Center for Effective Discipline, the Center for Children and Families, the Child Rights Information Network, the Global Initiative to End Corporal Punishment of Children, the Family Violence & Sexual Assault Institute, and the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma.

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To book a live or taped interview with Dr. George Holden in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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DMN: Why Texas should ban corporal punishment in schools

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date June 6, 2011

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The Dallas Morning News invited SMU Psychology Professor and parenting expert George Holden to participate in its opinion page face-off on corporal punishment. Holden, an advocate of positive parenting strategies, is opposed to corporal punishment in either the home or at school.

His opinion piece “Why Texas should ban corporal punishment in schools” appeared in the May 29, 2011, edition of The Dallas Morning News.

Holden, who’s published five books and more than 55 scientific papers on parenting and child development, says hundreds of studies on spanking have revealed the negative long-term impacts of corporal punishment. Holden was an organizer of the June 3-4 international conference “Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline” in Dallas.

Read the full op-ed piece.

EXCERPT:

By George Holden
Professor of Psychology at SMU
She had been struck 10 years earlier, but the student in my college psychology course remembered every detail vividly. As a fifth-grader attending public school in a town near Houston, she was falsely accused of writing in a textbook and sent to the principal’s office. The student’s denial enraged the principal, who, while yelling, hit her three times with a ruler.

The student’s parents had not given permission to the school to use corporal punishment, but school officials mistakenly found the permission form of a student with the same surname. My student reported feeling traumatized by the incident and becoming withdrawn, with a lingering fear of teachers and distrust of authority figures.

The physical punishment inflicted upon this student is by no means rare. Nineteen states in this country, primarily in the South and West, have not yet banned corporal punishment in public schools. Reported incidents have declined in the past 30 years, but not enough. According to the most recent analysis by the Department of Education’s civil rights office, more than 220,000 students nationwide were subjected to corporal punishment in 2006.

Texas schools have the dubious distinction of leading the nation in that analysis, accounting for more than 49,000 cases. Only about 40 of the state’s school districts prohibit corporal punishment, including large urban districts such as Dallas and Fort Worth, while more than 1,000 districts permit it. Their school boards have created a hodgepodge of policies, some of which specify the instrument, method and administrator of punishment, as well as whether parents must be notified.

Read the full op-ed piece.

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Dallas Morning News: ‘Meta-parenting’ helps you give better guidance

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date January 10, 2011

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Dallas Morning News reporter Tyra Damm interviewed SMU Psychology Professor George W. Holden about a new parenting theory he’s developed that bridges the long-standing conflict between the nature vs. nurture models of child development.

Called “meta-parenting, Holden’s model holds that how a child turns out is a factor of both nature and nurture — as well as parental guidance shaped by a child’s own strengths.

Holden calls the new theory meta-parenting and explains that it goes beyond the “either-or” conflict of nature vs. nurture. Damm’s article “‘Meta-parenting’ helps you give better guidance” features a question and answer with Holden.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Tyra Damm
Dallas Morning News
Dr. George Holden, a psychologist and professor at Southern Methodist University, studies relationships between parents and children. He’s also the proud dad of three children — a recent college graduate, a college junior and a high school student.

Holden’s most recent publication, in the journal Child Development Perspectives, describes the role that parents play in directing children along developmental paths.

His theory is that parents who provide the best guidance are those who recognize a child’s strengths, help that child according to his needs and redirect when obstacles get in the way.

I spoke with Dr. Holden this week about his research. Here are excerpts.

Can you explain the theory you’ve written about?

One of the unrecognized, important roles that parents play is to guide their children on positive pathways of development. There are many different kinds of pathways: academic, learning, school-focused, social competence, athletic, musical, religious.

Some parents are into politics and rear their children to be politically savvy. Some parents of girls think, “What do I need to do to raise my daughter so she can get married?” Some have a general pathway of keeping the child from becoming a criminal.

What I argue is that part of the role of parents is to help the child identify where strengths and talents lie so they can develop the strengths and foster self-esteem.

Is the ability to provide good guidance innate? Or do parents who provide the best guidance have to study and work to get there?

Generally I’d say parents who are more conscious about it are going to do a good job. It’s what I call meta-parenting, that is, parents thinking about their children and child-rearing outside of ongoing reactions.

Meta-parenting has four components: anticipating, assessing the child, problem solving and reflecting. All of those components are used and needed in the process of guidance.

When a child goes off track — with a peer problem, a health problem, dyslexia — how does the parent go about making course corrections? Do they take action or not? Do they choose a good solution? Who do they turn to? Do they get good sources of information to deal with the problem?

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New child development theory bridges nature vs. nurture; parental guidance shapes child’s strengths

Post author By Margaret Allen

Post date December 1, 2010

How a child turns out determined by nature, nurture — and parental guidance shaped by child’s strengths

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Why does a child grow up to become a lawyer, a politician, a professional athlete, an environmentalist or a churchgoer?

It’s determined by our inherited genes, say some researchers. Still others say the driving force is our upbringing and the nurturing we get from our parents.

But a new child-development theory bridges those two models, says psychologist George W. Holden at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Holden’s theory holds that the way a child turns out can be determined in large part by the day-to-day decisions made by the parents who guide that child’s growth.

“This model helps to resolve the nature-nurture debate,” Holden says. “Effective parents are taking nature into account in their nurturing. It’s a slightly different twist.”

Parental guidance is key
Child development researchers largely have ignored the importance of parental “guidance,” Holden says. In his model, effective parents observe, recognize and assess their child’s individual genetic characteristics, then cultivate their child’s strengths.

“It’s been said that parents are the ‘architect’ or the ‘conductor’ of a child’s development. There are lots of different synonyms, but the terms don’t capture the essence that parents are trying to ‘guide,'” Holden says. “Some parents have more refined goals — like wanting their child to be an athlete or to have a particular career. Some have more general goals — such as not wanting their child to become a criminal. But all are positive goals.”

Holden describes and explains his theory and research in the article “Childrearing and Developmental Trajectories: Positive Pathways, Off-ramps, and Dynamic Processes” in the current issue of the journal Child Development Perspectives. The theory is also detailed in his child psychology textbook, “Parenting, A Dynamic Perspective,” published by Sage Publications Inc., 2010.

Parents help or hinder progress
In decades past, researchers have studied many aspects of parenting that Holden describes as “unidimensional” and easier to quantify than guidance. Examples include: how parents reinforce their children’s behavior, punish their children or show them love and warmth.

Only in the last decade have researchers studied the role parents play in helping or hindering their child’s progress toward — or abandonment of — a particular course of development, he says.

“It’s not an easy set of behaviors to observe and quantify because it’s more complex in that it relates to parental goals that they have for their children,” he says. “It’s also multi-faceted. It’s not a simple unitary behavior that can be easily and reliably counted up. So there are methodological reasons it hasn’t been studied, and there are also biases and theoretical orientations that have neglected this.”

The time has come, however, to understand the impact of parental guidance, Holden says. Sophisticated statistical procedures now allow new research techniques such as growth-curve modeling and group-based trajectory analysis. Other child development experts have ventured into the interaction between child and parent trajectories, says Holden. He hopes many more will join in advancing the concept, which he considers critical to understanding child development.

“I’m certainly not the first to think of this, but I’ve framed it a little differently and a little more comprehensively than it’s been discussed before,” Holden says. “I’m sure there are things I haven’t thought of, so hopefully this will generate discussion, research and modification. And I hope it will trickle down to parents so they can see the critical role they can play in helping their children develop in positive ways.”

Pathways or trajectories
In his conceptual framework, Holden hypothesizes that parents guide their children’s development in four complex and dynamic ways:

Parents initiate trajectories, sometimes trying to steer their child in a preferred developmental path based on either the parents’ preferences or their observations of the child’s characteristics and abilities, such as enrolling their child in a class, exposing them to people and places, or taking a child to practices or lessons;
Parents also sustain their child’s progress along trajectories with encouragement and praise, by providing material assistance such as books, equipment or tutoring, and by allocating time to practice or participate in certain activities;
Parents mediate trajectories, which influences how their child perceives and understands a trajectory, and help their child steer clear of negative trajectories by preparing the child to deal with potential problems;
Finally, parents react to child-initiated trajectories.

Trajectories are useful images for thinking about development because one can easily visualize concepts like “detours,” “roadblocks” and “off-ramps,” Holden says. Detours, he says, are transitional events that can redirect a pathway, such as divorce. Roadblocks are events or behavior that shut down a potential trajectory, such as teen pregnancy, which can block an educational path. Off-ramps are exits from a positive trajectory, such as abusing drugs, getting bullied or joining a gang.

Holden says there are other ways parents influence a child’s progress on a trajectory, such as through modeling desired behaviors, or modifying the speed of development by controlling the type and number of experiences.

Some of the ways in which children react to trajectories include accepting, negotiating, resisting or rejecting them, he says.

“Some factors that also can influence trajectories include the family’s culture, their income and family resources, and the quality of the parent-child relationship,” says Holden. “What this model of parenting helps to point out is that effective parenting involves guiding children in such a way as to ensure that they are developing along positive trajectories.”

Holden is a professor in the SMU Department of Psychology. — Margaret Allen

SMU has an uplink facility on campus for live TV, radio or online interviews. To speak with Dr. Holden or to book him in the SMU studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

SMU is a private university in Dallas where nearly 11,000 students benefit from the national opportunities and international reach of SMU’s seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

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