A scourge, a blow to a child in the buttocks with the hand, is a common form of discipline that is still used in children worldwide. However, today whips are banned in 53 countries and states around the world.
The use of whipping has been a very controversial issue during the last decades and his supporters claim that they are safe, necessary and effective, while those who oppose claim that they are harmful to children and violate their human rights of protection.
We are two academic researchers with extensive experience in research and clinical trials in the field of child abuse. We specialize in the effects of the scourges and our goal is to take the debate on this subject further.
Research clearly shows that scourges are linked to a higher probability of negative sequelae at the health, social and development levels. These sequelae include mental health problems, substance abuse, suicide attempts and cognitive problems. It should also be noted that there is no scientific study that demonstrates that whipping is beneficial for children.
People who say that whipping children are harmful on some occasions, are simply given their opinion and is an opinion that is not supported by any scientific basis.The scourge studies
To date, hundreds of quality studies on scourges have been carried out with various types of research. Over time, the quality of such research has improved to include better ways to measure scourges, as well as more sophisticated forms of research and statistical methods.
The scientific evidence of these studies has consistently shown that spanking is related to negative sequelae for children.
There are two reference studies in this regard directed by Elizabeth Gershoff. In the first study, published in 2002, 88 studies published during the previous 62 years were compared and analyzed and concluded that physical punishment was linked to physical abuse, crime and antisocial behavior.
In 2016, an updated meta-analysis was published where 75 studies conducted in the previous 13 years were analyzed and compared. The conclusion of this analysis was that there is no evidence that scourges serve to improve children's behavior and that scourges increase the risk of 13 types of harmful sequelae, including aggressiveness, antisocial behavior, mental health problems and negative relationships with parents.
We now have data that clearly demonstrates that whipping is not a safe or effective practice. Obviously this does not make parents who have given any scourge bad parents, we simply did not know the consequences in the past.
Creating positive parenting strategies
The evidence of the last 20 years of research consistently demonstrates that whipping is harmful. There is also a growing global consensus on the right for children to be protected and live with dignity, as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children and within the Development Goals Sustainable United Nations to end violence. As a whole, the main recommendation is that one should not resort to whipping in children or adolescents.
Now the important thing is find ways to help parents use positive parenting strategies that do not require any type of physical action. Research has already shown that parental education programs that are primarily focused on not using physical punishment can succeed.
If researchers focused more on the impact of good parental practices, we could leave behind the debate about whether scourges are good or not.Some of the evidence on the positive effects of reducing aggressive parenting practices comes from American programs such as Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Incredible Years (IY) or Nurse Family Partnership (NFP). The effectiveness of other programs designed to help families locally and in pediatric settings is being analyzed.
As researchers, we have to rethink the way we investigate, the questions we ask ourselves and the debates we carry out, if we want to continue advancing in this field and ensure the safety and well-being of children. The scientific magazine Child Abuse & Neglect He has published a special issue that contains his own study and several discussion articles with more strategies. It is available free to all readers for a limited time.
Authors: Tracie O. Afifi, associate professor at the University of Manitoba and Elisa Romano, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Ottawa.
This article has originally been published in The Conversation. You can read the original article here.
Translated by Silvestre Urbón.
