Spare the rod and spoil the child?
A recent study found that a large swath of Gen Z and millennial parents still use spanking as a form of punishment.
Published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health last month, the research revealed that when this demographic of parents was asked whether they had ever spanked their child or children with their hand, about 20% said “yes.”
Meanwhile, 45% of Gen Xers admitted to spanking their children.
Experts say the practice is not beneficial and carries serious long-term consequences.
“I generally do not recommend physical discipline,” mother, pediatrician and parenting expert Dr. Isha Mannering told The Post.
“While it may result in compliance in the moment, it does so through fear rather than by teaching the deeper skills children actually need, such as self-regulation or sound judgment.”
While younger generations use less physical discipline than their predecessors, 15% of the 4,000 adults surveyed reported believing spanking was necessary to raise a child properly.
However, Mannering notes that for children, physical discipline can normalize the use of force as a response to frustration or conflict.
She cites a 2021 study that found children who are spanked at age 3 are more likely to have externalizing behaviors by age 5 — including destroying their own belongings or being mean to or physically attacking others — than those who were not physically punished.
Meanwhile, a 2017 study found that children who are spanked are more likely to become violent with a romantic partner later in life.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have both taken a clear stance against spanking.
The WHO defines corporal punishment as any “in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light.”
While the AAP strongly discouraged spanking in its 1998 clinical report on effective discipline, its updated 2018 policy flat-out abolished it.
“Although many children who were spanked become happy, healthy adults, current evidence suggests that spanking is not necessary and may result in long-term harm,” the academy advised in a statement.
According to Mannering, the medical community is unified against physical punishment because evidence consistently challenges its efficacy and demonstrates its dangers.
“Physical punishment is not more effective than non-physical discipline, and it carries greater potential for harm,” she said
At least 69 countries have legally abolished all corporal punishment of children. Sweden was the first country to outlaw the practice in 1979.
As of 2024, spanking is legal in all 50 US states.
The study notes that being spanked as a child significantly increases the odds of spanking your own child.
Within the survey, 55.6% of parents reported being spanked three or more times themselves as children. Meanwhile, 40.2% reported being spanked between zero and two times.
However, Mannering believes that Gen Z and millennial parents who themselves were spanked as children can “re-wire” their instinctual response to use physical discipline when they’re stressed.
“Gen Z and millennial parents have already shown a willingness to break cycles, and they can do that here as well,” assured Mannering.
“Rewiring the response begins with a mindset shift — recognizing the impulse in the moment and replacing a physical reaction with calm, consistent, predictable discipline.”
