Spanking Continued

A couple of blogs ago, I wrote about spanking and religion. As I stated the popularity of spanking in America is rooted primarily in our strong religious background. The scriptural claim that is frequently quoted is that if you spare the rod, you spoil the child. I pointed out that research on child development has not supported this admonition. Now there is a new study supporting my claim, reported in the current issue of "Pediatrics." Researchers at Columbia University studied over 1500 children who were spanked as a form of discipline at the age of five years. When the researchers re-evaluated the children at the age of nine, they found them to be more aggressive and more inclined to break rules. These children also scored lower in terms of verbal skills according to standardized tests as well as being lower in self-control in general. If you are using spanking as a form of discipline, you might reconsider it, particularly since there are other options for discipline that lower aggression, teach better behaviors, and increase self control.