Spanking your children may lead to risky sexual behavior latter in life, scientists say.
According to a report in HealthDay News today, a recent study by a “spanking expert” has proven that spanking and other corporal punishment is related to a higher chance of committing date rape, premarital sex, sex without a condom and masochistic sex such as spanking during sex.
It adds to a slew of studies by psychologists and other researchers, including the revered Dr. Spock, that correlates spanking children with aggression, criminal and abusive behavior later in life.
In the article, the lead researcher, Murray Straus says he found that out of people who have never been spanked, five percent hit their partners. In contrast, out of those who were spanked frequently as children, 25 percent hit their partners.
But Straus also says, some 90 percent of U.S. parents spank toddlers.
I don’t know what my stance on spanking is exactly, as I’m not a parent and I haven’t given it much thought. However, I do know that I was spanked as a child when I did something wrong. (And when I say spank, I’m talking about a strong pat on the behind, not anything that I would consider abusive, resulting in bruises or massive pain). If we’re on the same page as far as that definition is concerned, I don’t think the occasional spanking is really all that bad – and I certainly doubt that spanking of that kind messes a kid up to the point of sexually deviant behavior. Then again, I’m not a psychologist.
Outlawing spankings altogether reminds me of the anti-red pen movement. Maybe you’ve heard of this, maybe not – but there are some parents and educators who believe that using a red pen on a child’s schoolwork is demoralizing and can have a negative psychological effect in the longterm.
That conclusion seems a little extreme to me. Discipline, punishments and constructive criticism all play an integral role in teaching children basic lessons and lifeskills, as does positive reinforcement as well. Taking any of those things to the extreme, however, is obviously not a good thing. A little bit can go a long way, on the other hand, and not be an entirely bad thing.
It would be interesting to see the range of what is considered a spank. Amount of force, level of anger involved, any accompanying verbal abuse, etc. would all seem to play out differently in some way. Otherwise, it would seem to be a rather self-selecting process.