Study of Spanking of Children and the Occurrence of Aggressive Behavior - Assignment Example

? Comparison Paper/Is Spanking Detrimental to Young Children Article explores the relationship of spanking frequency before two years of age and the behavior problems that arise before a child enters school. The methods used in this study involves following up of children who are younger than the age of two until four years after joining school. The estimation of the possibility of significant behavior problems at follow-up was done in multivariate analyses that controlled for the frequency of spanking and other characteristics. The main participants were mothers and their children from a comprehensive national research. The arithmetical examination at baseline incorporated a racially mixed area of 1966 children aged 0 to 23 months. This involved the use of two dichotomous indicators for showing behavior problems. One was used to indicate that the motherly assessment of child behavior problems exceeded a threshold. The second test was used to indicate that the mother of the child met a school administrator to investigate the behavior problems of her child (Slade and Wissow1321). The findings of this research depicted that the White Non-Hispanic children spanked usually before age 2 are likely to have behavior problems after entry into school. This is concluded in check for other factors. It also showed that associations between spanking distribution and behavior problems were not statistically significant for Hispanic and black children. This is because there was the lack of consistency across outcome measures. It concluded that the frequency of spanking before the age of two is associated with child behavior problems at school age among White Non-Hispanic children. This is not commonly found among black and Hispanic children. These findings are consistent with reports on studies of children older than two years, but they are majorly based on children who are spanked starting at an early age (Slade and Wissow1321). Article 2 gives a longitudinal approach of the moderating effect of parental warmth on the association between spanking and child aggression. It uses material from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Study. This study analyses the strength of the aggressive behavior of a child. It involves testing whether spanking when the child was 36 months was associated with aggressive child behavior among three ethnic groups. It also tests whether gentled warmth moderated the effect of spanking on aggressive behavior in each ethnic group at 36 months. The tests are done after controlling for earlier aggressive behavior. The participants in this study included 693 Hispanic parent– child Dyads, 1013 African-American Dyads, and 1086 Caucasian Dyads. They all met the qualifications for participation in the Early Head Start program. The findings suggested that infant constitution was associated with aggressive behavior at 24 and 36 months, and that child aggression remained stable. Spanking was only associated with aggressive behavior for children who had Caucasian mothers. Maternal warmth did not lessen the impact of spanking on aggressive behavior among the three ethnic groups (Gerard, Oshio, Roe, and Stacks 178). According to article 1, spanking is one of the broadly used practices for disciplining preschool-aged children in the United States. It is approximated that 94% of three to four-year-old kids have been spanked at least once in the precedent year. According to a national survey conducted by the Commonwealth Fund, 36% have spanked a kid 1-1.5 years of age, 59% have spanked a kid 1.5-2 years of age, and 11% of parents have spanked a child 0.5-1 year old. This led to the conclusion that spanking a child at these ages may not help in achieving the benefits claimed for its use. This could negatively affect growth changes that occur before age 2. This is appropriate for children aged two years and above. In reviews of this research, some authors concluded that, on balance, the evidence provided suggests that no abusive and customary purpose of spanking for kids 2-6 years has impartial effects on child emotional welfare and may have beneficial effects on child conduct. This is because it may increase child agreement and it may decrease the need for potential penalty by deterring children’s misconduct. The effects of spanking depend on how spanking is used and its adoption according to the norms within certain cultures (Slade and Wissow1321). Infants and young toddlers have relatively limited capacity to understand the purpose and rationale for punishment compared with older children. They also have limited capacity for verbal communication and finite capacity to develop behaviors that conform to parents’ verbal directions. These features recommend that young children could be exposed to emotional disturbance and strain as a result of retribution, including spanking. This is because they are less equipped to learn discipline and modify their behavior to fulfill their parents’ prospects. Introduction of corporal penalty before age 2 could be dangerous than at older ages. This is because, before age 2, children undergo some key transitions in emotional and cognitive development. This includes the beginning of relations with mature caregivers and the growth of a sense of dependence on adults for safety and security (Slade and Wissow1321). Frequent or hard spanking during these transitions and other aversive situations within a household like animosity, stress, or poverty can slow down a child’s growth of trust and the way of thinking of safety with parents. This possibility is a problem because the founding of an emotionally safe and loving affiliation with parents early in upbringing is thought to establish the quality of their later connections. Children who do not establish a secure connection to their parents by the age of 2 years are in a danger for alteration problems at kindergarten ages and then, including persistent behavior problems and poor fitness with peers (Slade and Wissow1321). These contemplations propose the need for experiential proof on the relationship of spanking before age 2 with later child conduct problems. Only one study of spanking and subsequent child behavior problems has included children younger than 2. There is no connection between the extents of spanking at the baseline of the study and teacher rankings of child disagreement with peers at old ages. This study did not give information that is applicable to kids in the United States, because it was done on an undersized expediency sample of children from Sweden who was born in the mid-1950s. It did not adjust for other possibly decisive manipulates such as child personality and family socioeconomic condition (Slade and Wissow1321). This article explores the hypothesis that spanking distribution before age 2 is positively associated with the prospect of having behavior problems 4 years later, after joining school. Problems in conduct after the evolution into school are of interest. This is because the occurrence of significant conduct troubles is a risk factor for several unfavorable results. This includes need for specific educational services, school failure, and mental health problems (Slade and Wissow1321). Article 2 is consistent with previous longitudinal studies that controlled for earlier behavior problems. The conclusion from this study maintains the premise that early aggressive behavior remains stable, at least over a 1-year period in early childhood. The use of spanking at 3 years was predictive of violent behavior at 3 years after controlling for violent behavior at 2 years. Spanking was predictive of violent behavior among Caucasian families after analyzing separately by race. This research suggests that spanking was associated with aggressive behavior at 36 months only for Caucasian families. Maternal enthusiasm was a significant negative correlate of violent behavior, but it did not moderate the effect of spanking on aggressive behavior. Research suggests that spanking that is not offensive may be associated with certain behavior in children between the ages of 2 and 6. Spanking as a teaching policy peaks when children are toddlers and declines after children enter school (Gerard, Oshio, Roe, and Stacks 189). This study improves upon others by using longitudinal data that arise in infancy, analyzing outcomes separately for three ethnic groups and investigating the interaction effect of spanking and maternal warmth on aggressive behavior. The role that spanking and maternal warmth play behavior is not clear because the data set does not provide t -scores for aggressive behavior. This leads to the difficulty in understanding the effectiveness of spanking for children whose aggressive behavior is considered to be significant at the age of 2 years. Another reason that one cannot agree that spanking is beneficial for children is that recent research suggests that, among African-American samples, spanking may be confounded with other variables. For example, rigorous and demanding parents predictive of positive outcomes among high-risk African-American youth. This article has different strengths and limitations. Strengths include the longitudinal examination, beginning in infancy, of the relationship between spanking and aggressive behavior. The ability to control aggressive behavior at an earlier time periods is strength. This also includes the interactive meaning that parental warmth plays in the relationship between spanking and aggressive behavior among children in three racial groups, all of whom are living in poverty (Gerard, Oshio, Roe, and Stacks 191). Limitations include the fact that little research has been conducted with Hispanic children. This study relied on mothers who reported spanking, temperament, and child behavior. As a result, shared method variance is an issue in this study, that is, the relationship between behavior over time and spanking and behavior could be due to parent perceptions. The data set does not allow for the determination of the way in which parents in this study used spanking. The study would have been strengthened by knowing the situation, under which spanking was used, the severity of the spanking and whether it was used as the key or back-up method. This study only assessed one behavioral outcome for children, aggression (Gerard, Oshio, Roe, and Stacks 191). Comparison The study in article 1 suggests that spanking, in the context of low levels of maternal emotional support, was a momentous forecaster of an increased intensity of problem behavior over time among preschool African-American, Hispanic and Caucasian families, while the study in article 2 suggests that spanking was associated with aggressive behavior at 36 months only for Caucasian families. The survey samples are different because the children in the first study were between the ages of 4 and 10 when data were collected. This is much older than the sample of children used in article 2. The parents who were spanking regularly in the first study were parents. Their use of physical punishment did not decrease, negative attributions about the child or parenting, reflective capacity, or another dimension that is related to child outcome. Another cause of variation in findings is the way spanking was measured. In study 2, there was use of parent report of spanking in the last week. Study 1measure of spanking accounted for frequency and severity. This looked not only at parent information at baseline, but also at whether spanking was observed during the home visit. In addition, they calculated the standard number of times a kid was spanked over the 4 years of data collection and also whether the frequency of spanking increased, decreased or stayed the same and whether it was linked with an increase in conduct problems, both internalizing and externalizing. The second study addressed aggressive behavior, rather than all types of behavior problems, as was studied in the first paper. On average, aggressive behavior of children in study2 decreased from 24 to 36 months, which is typical for this age group. There were group differences in the NLSY test that was used in the first study; the percentage of families living in poverty ranged from 42% (Caucasian) to 78% (African American) (Gerard, Oshio, Roe, and Stacks 189-190). In conclusion, this study lacks a positive significant association between spanking and aggressive behavior. This ought not be used to suggest that spanking is an essential discipline strategy for reducing aggressive behavior among children. The data suggest that spanking does not increase aggressive behavior among African-American and Hispanic children, yet it is equally vital to note that the findings suggest that spanking does not significantly reduce aggressive behavior among African-American and Hispanic children. Developmental research suggests that aggressive behavior in toddlers is appropriate. Based on previous research, an increase in aggressive and noncompliant behavior is expected around the age of 18 months. This begins to fall when most children start school, and are able to comply with adult requests, to be coordinated and pro-social. Aggressive behavior decreased for Caucasian, African-American and Hispanic children from 24 to 36 months. Spanking that is accompanied by derogatory parenting or parenting that involves excessive force is no doubt harmful to children. Work cited Slade, Erick P. and Wissow, Lawrence S. “Spanking in Early Childhood and Later Behavior Problems: A Prospective Study of Infants and Young Toddlers”. Pediatrics Vol. 113, No.5. May 1, 2004: 1321 -1330. Print. Gerard, Jean, Oshio, Toko., Roe, Jacqueline., and Stacks, Ann M. “The moderating effect of parental warmth on the association between spanking and child aggression: a longitudinal approach”. Infant and Child Development, Vol. 18, Issue 2. March/April 2009: 178–194. Print. Read More