Annotated Bibliography

Issue: Corporal punishment

Introduction

 There is controversy on the issue of corporal punishment where some argue that corporal punishment is associated with behavioral problems while others argue that it is the best method to shape and achieve the desired behaviors.  These articles gives an important information  on corporal punishment and  serves a common purpose  of  letting people or rather parent view corporal punishment with a positive   perspective. In other words, the   argues  that corporal punishment does not contribute to behavioral problems but rather poor parenting  while providing   corporal punishment is the root cause of the problem. The key finding from both old and current sources is that   parents should ensure positive parenting which is based on inductive reasoning, parental warmth and monitoring.  Authors also propose parent training programs which will help parents gain knowledge on how to provide physical punishment to avoid internalizing and externalizing problems.

 

McKee, L., Roland, E., Coffelt, N., Olson, A., Forehand, R., Massari, C., & ... Zens, M. (2007). Harsh Discipline and Child Problem Behaviors: The Roles of Positive Parenting and Gender. Journal Of Family Violence, 22(4), 187-196. doi:10.1007/s10896-007-9070-6

 

According to McKee et al (2007), majority of parents in U.S use corporal punishment as a method of punishment despite the great controversy on this type of punishment   and its long-term effect to child’s behavior.   In 1995, a nationally-representative survey reported that over 50% of children aged 12 years and above experienced corporal punishment in the previous years. The prevalence of corporal punishment in U.S has made the issue to be debatable since corporal punishment has long-lasting effects to child’s behavior and internalizing problems. The hypothesis or thesis made is that verbal discipline and physical discipline (corporal punishment) contribute to child behavior problems and this can be avoided if parents practice positive parenting (parental warmth, inductive reasoning, avoid gender role stereotypes etc) while offering harsh discipline.

 The  study used a  community-based sample  and a total of 2,582 children  in fifth-sixth grade from pediatric clinics and their parents  were involved in the study where they  were provided with  questionnaires and  asked to complete  independently.  The findings  supported the  thesis that  verbal and physical  discipline contribute to  internalizing and externalizing  problems  such as depression, low self-esteem ,  aggressive behaviors, social withdrawal,  psychological maladjustment and more.  This research is useful to the audience because it has introduced a solution to the existing controversy.  While conducting the research, researchers on this field have seen the need to find how physical punishment and positive parenting are related.  For example, researchers will solve this debate by stating that corporal punishment should not be eliminated but what should be done is that parents should control the positive parenting.  In this case, parents should avoid gender stereotypes between boys and girls, offer inductive reasoning as to why a parenting is punishing and more importantly provide parental warmth which means that after punishing let the child know that he or she is loved.

Paolucci, E. O., & Violato, C. (2004). A Meta-Analysis of the Published Research on the Affective, Cognitive, and Behavioral Effects of Corporal Punishment. Journal Of Psychology, 138(3), 197-221.

 According to Paolucci & Violato (2004),   there is a controversy that exists in U.S and Canada based on the right way to punish children.  The argument raised is that corporal punishment is effective when parents are emotionally supportive, when it is under life circumstances and if it is used by parents who lack verbal skills.  In contrast, corporal punishment contributes to long-lasting behavioral problems such as physical aggression.  The authors in this article present a meta-analysis from 70 studies which were published in year 1961-2000.  The hypothesis made is that corporal punishment does not substantially contribute to cognitive and behavioral problems.  They claim that corporal punishment should be practiced under certain circumstances. For example, there should be a strong bond between the child and the parent, parent should focus on shaping behaviors, the punishment should be fair and it should be temperamentally appropriate.  Note that under certain conditions, there is an inductive reasoning for punishing and the goal of parents is very understood as to reinforce positive behaviors and to eliminate   the undesired behaviors.  In the meta-analysis, Howar (1996) asserted that parental factors that contribute to behavioral problem due to corporal punishment are; poor social support, marital discord, life stressors, mental problems, substance abuse and more.  Thus, studies from different research supports the hypothesis that; children who are physically punished   have low risk of developing behavioral problems   because even if they become upset, they understand that slapping or spanking is acceptance for shaping desired behaviors.  Thus, the long-lasting behavioral problems from corporal punishment are a consequence of these parental factors.  The author  create  a relationship with the audiences   in that  researchers  will continue with the research and focus  on changing the negative attitude with people that corporal punishment   is bad.  They should try to find other evidences that corporal punishment is positive under certain conditions and negative under some negative parental factors.

Balan, R., Dobrean, A., Roman, G., & Balazsi, R. (2017). Indirect Effects of Parenting Practices on Internalizing Problems among Adolescents: The Role of Expressive Suppression. Journal Of Child & Family Studies, 26(1), 40-47. doi:10.1007/s10826-016-0532-4

 According to  Balan et al (2017),  parents experience developmental tasks  which affects the child development  by contributing to  internalizing symptom  such as  substance  abuse, suicidal thoughts, aggressive behaviors and more. On developmental task,   contributing factors to internalizing problems include poor monitoring, harsh discipline and inconsistent disciple.  The authors assert that the three factors have a potential mechanism of leading to internalizing problem since they create expression suppression.   The authors create a thesis that; expressive suppression emotion regulation during corporal punishment contributes to internalizing symptoms.  This means that   parents create expressive suppression and avoidance   to their children through punitive reactions and negative parental behaviors.  In turn, the expressive suppression leads to depressive and anxiety symptoms. On  corporal punishment,  the authors  argue that inconsistent discipline- failure of the parent  to punish   a  wrong action at the right time makes  children to  lose trust with their parents  and continue  with irresponsive behaviors, and poor monitoring-failure to  track the behavior in different social setting  and failure to communicate increases the expressive suppression. Long-term practices of these parental behaviors affect the health of the child in that they modifies the behaviors and   becomes unable to control the negative emotion.  On the hand, parents may over-control the behaviors and in turn lead to anxiety and depression. This research helps the audiences understand that   corporal punishment is not bad but the parental practices in offering the punishment directly and indirectly leads to behavioral problems.  Researchers should now find the programs for emotional education or rather behavioral parent training.

Atiles, J. T., Gresham, T. M., & Washburn, I. (2017). Values and Beliefs Regarding Discipline Practices: How School Culture Impacts Teacher Responses to Student Misbehavior. Educational Research Quarterly, 40(3), 3-24.

According to Atiles, Gresham & Washburn (2017), teachers are expected to provide developmentally appropriate teaching and adhere to the sense of efficacy.  However, some use self-efficacy and this affects the way they deal with daily stress and students’ needs and other daily practices.   On corporal punishing, some states like U.S legalize corporal punishment and teachers normally refer students to the principal’s office for punishment. The authors in this article argue that most teachers do not use a sense of efficacy in addressing matters but rather they use self-efficacy and negative attitude on corporal punishment. This is because, corporal punishment is socially constructed or in other words teachers view it as a traditional way of punishment and they tend to align their practices with values and beliefs. In the study, pre-service and in-service teachers were given a series of questionnaires on self-efficacy. The result showed that teachers who provide developmentally appropriated practices   used non-punitive reactions in dealing with corporal punishment while teachers   who referred students to the principal’s office viewed corporal punishment with less non-punitive reactions. This means that   the latter viewed corporal punishment with a negative attitude or relied on values and beliefs while the former viewed it with a sense of efficacy and as a way of shaping behaviors.  The purpose of this research is to show audiences that there should be training programs in schools to allow teachers understand the real meaning of corporal punishment. First, teachers should understand that corporal punishment is not about values and beliefs but it is something based on   shaping behaviors and more importantly helping students achieve learning goals.