Spanking of a child is taken as an act of bending a child over one’s knees and striking their bottom with a hand or a belt with the aim of stopping unwanted behavior. Any act that involves physical striking of a child to correct a behavior can also be termed as spanking. Discipline should be aimed at making children become competent and independent adults. American Academic op Pediatrics said that the best effective discipline system has three important elements; good learning environment with positive and supportive child-parent relationships, strategy for eradicating bad behaviors and a strategy for reinforcing good behavior to children.The act of spanking when appropriately applied creates a better discipline effect to the bad behavior but at the same time has many negative effects on the child which could be emotional, physical or even psychological. Due to many of its effects, children should not be spanked but rather better alternative ways to correct their negative behaviors should be employed. Dr. Baumrind did not support the idea of spanking as a disciplining method. She said that an occasional swat, when appropriately applied in child rearing wasn’t harmful. Corporal means of correcting misbehaviors in children have many negative effects.Some of the problems associated with this act include;

Spanking children usually destroy their mental health.

Studies have shown that when children are spanked, the gray matter of their brain decreases. The IQ of children is said to develop better to more points in children who are not spanked as compared to the spanked children. A study by Dr. Brazy at Duke University and his colleagues at Case Western University showed that prolonged crying in children leads to high blood pressure in their brain, obstruction of blood from easily coming out of their brain, increase in stress hormones and decrease in oxygen in the brain.

It greatly reduces the self-esteem of children and damages their relationship with parents.

When children are hit, especially by their parents who are supposed to protect them, they begin to question themselves, ‘What’s the problem with me?’ This decreases the self-esteem in them. A study by Elizabeth Gershoff together with her team found that children who are spanked more are likely to be depressed and always exhibit some anxiety. Spanking damages the relationship and trust between the parents and their children. A person would always trust and seek advice from the people who support and encourage them, but the people who smack them down, they always try to evade from them. This also applies to children. Spanking them reduces the advice the parents can pass to them, and the influence they should have on the children is consequently reduced. It also teaches children that they should lie to avoid punishment from the parents. It creates fear and resentment; children become frightened, and lose self-control.

Spanking of the children leads to violent behavior and increased criminal activities as they grow up.

Some perceive being hit by the older people mean it is acceptable those weaker or younger than them. Some would think violence is a good way to show one’s anger and solve the conflict. Studies show that the more parents spanked their children, the most violent they became. When children are occasionally hit, they become more likely to hit others especially the ones younger than them. This behavior is said to persist even in adult level, and they may also hit their spouses. Most become more aggressive as they get older. When about five years old, the children hit became more defiant, would easily become frustrated, would lash out physically against anyone around while others would demand that their wants and needs be satisfied immediately.

Conclusion

This form of correction should be avoided as much as possible as teaches children to fear the parents and to be liars in order to evade being punished by parents. It also makes children think they are bad and always makes them to be on the wrong side. The act teaches children that violence is one of the best ways to solve problems. Better and friendly methods of disciplining kids should be used. Some of the ways to instill good behavior in children is setting rules to them, educating them wisely on the rules, being consistent to ensure the rules are followed, setting wise limits to them, behaving the way you expect them to behave and rewarding good behavior.Rob Walters argued that a simple short answer NO is enough to show children you are not supporting what they want. If children are not well disciplined, they will lack self-control and won’t be able to respect their parents or even the authorities and will never know the appropriate behavior.