Spanking Linked to Aggression in Young Children

Spanking has effects on early childhood behavior similar to those of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as physical or emotional abuse or neglect, parental mental illness, parental substance use, and others, a study in the Journal of Pediatrics has found. Children’s exposure to spanking and ACEs when they were age 3 had statistically indistinguishable associations with externalizing behaviors at age 5, such as destroying their own belongings, being mean to others, or physically attacking others.

Benjamin Weatherston/University of Michigan

The results strongly suggest that spanking should be considered an ACE, lead author Julie Ma, Ph.D., M.S.W., told Psychiatric News.

“With spanking, you are showing kids that it is OK to hit people if you would like them to stop what they are doing. Kids learn that this is an appropriate behavior, and it prompts them to become more aggressive,” Ma said. “If more [mental health] programs thought of spanking as an adverse childhood experience, we could then talk about adjusting social norms and attitudes and parental behavior.”

Ma and colleagues analyzed responses from 2,380 families in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), which included children born between 1998 and 2000 in 20 U.S. cities and their mothers. Mothers in the FFCWS were interviewed in person shortly after giving birth and interviewed again by phone when their children were 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15 years old. Ma and colleagues drew their study sample from the interviews when the children were 3 years old, which assessed ACEs and spanking, and the interviews when the children were 5 years old, which assessed behavioral problems.

The researchers found that at age 3, 58% of the children had experienced one or more ACE, and 55% of the children had been spanked by their mother in the past month. Not only did spanking and ACEs have a similar association with externalizing behaviors in children at age 5, mothers who spanked were more likely to report externalizing behaviors in their children than mothers who did not spank.

Mothers who spanked were younger and reported lower levels of neighborhood collective efficacy, a phenomenon wherein those in a community agree on what is acceptable behavior and reinforce it in one another. This speaks to a need for more support, Ma said.

“Younger parents are more likely to be first-time parents and are more likely to have less stability in terms of finances, careers, and relationship status, and parenting stress tends to be higher among younger mothers,” she said. “Health professionals who work with parents should provide them with resources, including ways for parents to connect with other parents so they know they are not alone on their parenting journey. Sharing the challenges and joys of raising a young child helps to relieve stress and normalize their experience as parents.”

Psychiatrists are in an excellent position to talk with parents about the potential harms of spanking, said Anish Dube, M.D., M.P.H., a child and adolescent psychiatrist in the juvenile justice system in Orange County, Calif., who was not involved in the research. Dube is a member of APA’s Council on Children, Adolescents, and Their Families.

“Often parents don’t think of spanking as hurting their child, and that’s where the psychiatrist comes in to help them sort out the intent of the spanking versus the actual consequences of it,” Dube said.

He said that discussing spanking requires a delicate approach. “Remember that some parents may be scared to talk about physical punishment. They may be embarrassed or afraid that their children will be taken away. We have to have more open discussions about this in a nonjudgmental way.”

Dube suggests focusing on the personal and practical rather than the academic when discussing spanking.

“In the medical world, we tend to come at parents with facts and figures and that is not always the best way to appeal to the general public. Instead, it’s better to ask what it was like for parents if they were spanked, what the emotional experience was like, and whether there is a better way they might have learned without being spanked,” he added. “The idea is that if you are trying to teach the child something, spanking is not the answer because it doesn’t necessarily teach children what you want them to learn. Rather, it models behavior that you don’t want them to learn, and it doesn’t build a better relationship with them.”

Instead, psychiatrists can help parents see the benefits of positive reinforcement, Dube said.

“Talk about how rewarding positive behaviors creates positive self-esteem, encourages positive behavior, and leads to better relationships between parents and children,” he said.

Ma and colleagues reported no outside funding for their study. ■