Tag: Paul Williamson

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.

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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.

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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

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.

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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:

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

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

ABC News: Parents Caught Spanking Children on Audiotape Real Time

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date July 1, 2011

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.

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.”

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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.

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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.”

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

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

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

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date June 29, 2011

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.

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.

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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?

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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.

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

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

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

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date June 28, 2011

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.

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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.

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

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