Spanking children leads to mental illness: study
A new study has made the connection between physically disciplining children and mental illness later in life.
It's an age-old parenting question - to spank or not to spank? - that is beginning to be answered by most family psychologists and academics with a resounding "no".
A study on the effects of spanking released by the University of Texas and the University of Michigan shows that the more a child is spanked - defined as an open hand to to backside - the more likely it is that their behaviour will become defiant, anti-social and rebellious.
"Our analysis focuses on what most would recognise as spanking and not on potentially abusive behaviours," Associate Professor Elizabeth Gershoff from the University of Texas said.
"We found that spanking was associated with unintended detrimental outcomes and was not associated with more immediate or long-term compliance, which are parents' intended outcomes when they discipline their children."
The study analyses 50 years of research into the outcomes of spanking, surveying around 160,000 children.
Associate Professor Gershoff said parents tend to think of spanking as separate and distinct from physical abuse, but research has shown that spanking is linked with the same negative outcomes to only a "slightly lesser" degree.
According to NBC News, spanking children is still considered to be an effective mode of discipline in American households.
A poll in 2013 found that 81 per cent of American parents thought spanking their children was "sometimes appropriate."
In Australia, it is illegal to physically punish children in schools, juvenile detention centres and childcare centres, but it remains legal to spank or smack a child at home, as long as the punishment is deemed "reasonable."
However, psychologists warn that continuous smacking or spanking can lead to depression, anxiety, aggression and other mental health issues, with the risk that spanking could escalate into serious physical abuse.
A newspaper poll conducted in in 2012 found that 70 per cent of Australian parents thought smacking was acceptable. Only 36 per cent thought spanking should be used in "extreme situations."
Even former Prime Minister Tony Abbott was quoted as saying: "I think all parents know that occasionally the best thing that we can give a kid is a smack."
The United Nations considers all forms of physical punishment to be "violence" and as of this year 49 countries have banned all physical punishment of children, including spanking.
