Guidance from the discipline of Psychology about how to raise a child seems to swing back and forth like a pendulum. For instance, 100 years ago, the prominent behaviorist John Watson recommended to parents that they eliminate nighttime thumb sucking in their infants and toddlers by pinning the arms of their bedclothes to the mattress; babies should be raised on a strict feeding schedule; physical punishment of children was appropriate and necessary; and affection between parent and child should be used sparingly. In short, from infancy on, children should be treated as adults. Twenty-five years later, the age of pediatrician Benjamin Spock began, and Watson’s advice was seen as bordering on cruel and barbaric. Spock’s book, “Baby and Child Care,” preached a more permissive childrearing model, and guided the behavior of millions of baby-boom parents following WWII. During the last half of the 20th century, Spock’s book sold nearly 50 million copies worldwide. His permissive, nurturing approach to childrearing advised parents to recognize and be sensitive to their child’s changing motives, interests, and abilities at different stages of development. He promoted “moderate strictness,” where children must be taught manners, courtesy, cleanliness, and obedience, but always in a context of supportive guidance. He was passionately opposed to using physical punishment with children.
Most adults of the baby-boomer generation (born 1946-1964) can remember being physically punished when they were young. Often, I have heard someone comment on some action by a young person today, and say, “If I ever did that when I was a kid my old man would take a belt to me!” I have also heard baby boomers reflect on their school, and refer to “Miss So-and-so” as someone who wouldn’t hesitate to “wrap me on the knuckles with a block or a ruler if I acted out in class.” Over the Dr. Spock years, however, many of his messages took hold and parental actions like physical punishment slowly were seen as inappropriate for childrearing and schooling. As one young father put it: “I have my own kids now and I don’t use any physical punishment, nor does my wife. These days it’s just too easy to be accused of simple spanking crossing a very blurry line, and becoming something that say a teacher under strict mandated reporting has the duty to report further. I don’t need that! I also believe that violent acts breed violent acts; if I spank, I teach the kid violence is the way to handle things. Not worth it.”
Corporal punishment in the schools also began to fade away during the Spock years. As one teacher put it: “Physical punishment only sends the message to fear the instrument, or provider, and not actually curb the behavior. In schools, we clearly can’t resort to physical punishment, but we do have the option of response-cost, which is taking away something preferred, or positive reinforcement, which is giving something preferred. I tend to use reinforcement much more often because it seems to be more effective. I’d rather do something to earn something, than have to act simply to avoid punishment.”
The teacher’s comment notwithstanding – in our present atmosphere of online threats, gun violence, and extreme verbal aggression by some political leaders – reputable media sources are reporting an increasing trend of allowing corporal punishment in schools. Some school districts have been designing policies that – with written parental permission – allow teachers to use physical punishment in the form of “paddling.” Some of these policies are in effect state-wide. This trend is disturbing because psychologists can call on a mountain of evidence showing that punishment is ineffective in changing behavior, potentially contributes to childhood trauma, and can have adverse consequences that extend into adulthood. Furthermore, think about it – what kind of parents would permit a teacher to inflict pain on their child? Fortunately, in spite of these policies to insert physical punishment into schools, nationwide support for school paddling continues to be low. Most people do not want to see a return to early 20th century childrearing practices that deny decades of sound psychological research into the cognitive, emotional, and social development of children. From a mental-health perspective, let’s hope corporal punishment stays out of schools.
Psychology and Stress 