There is a parenting question that elicits many opinions and responses of mothers and fathers all around the world. Is spanking an effective and safe way to punish a misbehaving child? And if not, what are the long-term effects of spanking a child? Although extensive research suggests that there are far more negative side effects of raising your hand to a child than there are positives. Despite this, many people continue to spank their children. Most parents seem to be unaware of the research that is out there on the topic of punishing children. There are many negative consequences of spanking a child such as increased aggression, poor cognitive outcomes, and antisocial behavior.

Increased aggression is a common side effect that makes its appearance down the road, when it becomes a long-term effect of being spanked. Parents use spanking as a quick fix and they do not think about what kind of messages spanking is sending to their children. Is it okay to physically put your hands on someone when they have done wrong? What stops the child from thinking this is an okay option for dealing with their future spouse? “Physical discipline, including spanking, is associated with increased aggressive behavior and lower self-esteem in children," says Brian Johnson, Professor of Counseling Psychology at the University of Northern Colorado. He also states that “spanking models for children that using aggression is fine when one is upset, or has a conflict (Abbassi 2017)." This learned behavior is repeated down the road in other situations that do not call for physical confrontation. We cannot ignore the evidence that spanking will be taken as a learned behavior and in turn be turned into other aggressive behaviors as it is seen “the more frequently young children were spanked—regardless of whether mother, father, or both administered the punishment—the higher their odds of increased aggressive behavior two years later (Lee 2013).”

If increased aggression isn’t enough to worry about, evidence also suggests being spanked relates to poor cognitive development. Research shows that spanking is “associated with poorer cognitive outcomes for children, even when the researchers controlled for factors such as maternal intelligence, maternal depression and cognitive stimulation in the home (Klass 2016).” Regardless of the controlled factors in a study, the children still exhibit these issues after being spanked. “Bivariate correlational relationships were found between spanking/CP (corporal punishment) and negative outcomes including externalizing and internalizing symptoms and lower cognitive performance (Fergusson 2012).” If spanking ends up effecting their cognitive performance negatively then how is it helping to spank them at all? 

Lastly, many researches have established a correlation between antisocial behavior and being spanked as a child. ““Conditional spanking” led to greater reductions in child defiance or anti-social behavior (Smith 2012).” Despite there being significant evidence for this, parents continue to spank their children, not thinking about what it can do to them later on. However, in much of the research, scientist found “the associations between corporal punishment and child antisocial behavior were stronger when mothers reported having spanked impulsively rather than in a controlled manner (Moyer 2016).” Regardless, there was significant evidence that a child later on exhibited antisocial behavior.

Many parents spank their children and believe that spanking them is in their best interest and it is deemed as the only punishment that actually works. However, many parents are uneducated on other ways to punish their children. Most parents were raised being spanked themselves and therefore think it is okay to spank their own children. So, “Gershoff says that in spite of the lingering controversy, the safest approach parents can take is not to spank their kids. “Studies continue to find that spanking predicts negative behavior changes—there are no studies showing that kids improve (Moyer 2016).” Despite the overwhelming amount of scientific evidence, people continue to spank their children. If people would take a second to look at the evidence, we could raise a generation of different children.
