Posted on 09/24/2009 7:16:10 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Spanking can get kids to behave in a hurry, but new research suggests it can do more harm than good to their noggins. The study, involving hundreds of U.S. children, showed the more a child was spanked the lower his or her IQ compared with others.
"All parents want smart children," said study researcher Murray Straus of the University of New Hampshire. "This research shows that avoiding spanking and correcting misbehavior in other ways can help that happen."
One might ask, however, whether children who are spanked tend to come from backgrounds in which education opportunities are less or inherited intelligence lower.
But while the results only show an association between spanking and intelligence, Straus says his methodology and the fact that he took into account other factors that could be at play (such as parents' socioeconomic status) make a good case for a causal link.
"You can't say it proves it, but I think it rules out so many other alternatives; I am convinced that spanking does cause a slowdown in a child's development of mental abilities," Straus told LiveScience.
Intelligence quotients
Straus and his colleague Mallie Paschall of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Maryland studied nationally representative samples of two age groups: 806 children ages 2 to 4, and 704 ages 5 to 9. The researchers tested the kids' IQs initially and then four years later.
Both groups of kids got smarter after four years. But the 2- to 4-year-olds who were spanked scored 5 points lower on the IQ test than those not spanked. For children ages 5 to 9, the spanked ones scored on average 2.8 points lower than their unspanked counterparts.
The results, he said, were statistically significant. .. ..
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
I got my fair dose of spanking growing up. How come I am so brilliant ?
Maybe smart kids figure their parents out ... and prevent spankings.
Alternate alternate title: Smart kids are dumb kids spanked into smartness
Instead of the parent telling the kid what should be done, or how to correct the behavior, maybe the parent resorts to just being a bully and hitting him instead.
I don’t mean to sound like a whiny liberal, but that’s usually what happened to me. My mom would just go off into a rage instead of telling us what the problem was and how we could do things correctly.
The abuse is something that definitely stays with you, so I can see how the results of the study were what they were.
Maybe they’re spanking the wrong ends.
I did notice as a child that the folks who used to FREQUENTLY beat their kids in public weren’t exactly the classiest folks and were usually from the shallower end of the gene pool.
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We used to call them ‘K-Mart Kids’ in these parts. However.......I found out (in public) when dealing with an ‘unruly child’ that the ‘Spock Death Grip’, with a stern look, works pretty well....and SILENTLY to boot. That ‘brachial nerve’ is sensitive, ya’ know. ;-)
I think getting my butt spanked all the time not only raised my I.Q. but it also helped me to become a fast learner. I learned quickly not to do that anymore! LOL!
>>I did notice as a child that the folks who used to FREQUENTLY beat their kids in public weren’t exactly the classiest folks and were usually from the shallower end of the gene pool.<<
I fully agree with you.
If you can’t think of any other form of punishment and beat on your kid in public constantly, you may not have the highest IQ.
And some kids learn quicker than others. That’s all there is to it.
I’ll post what I always say: it depends on the kid.
It’s the researcher that has the lower IQ.
2.8 points is insignificant to the point of being unmeasurable.
Avg IQ is considered between 90 and 110. There is a range, because measuring IQ is an inexact science at best.
Our two oldest are an MD who went to Northwestern med school and an engineer from the University of Michigan (top ten engineering school, hard to get into). They were spanked. Our nephew has an MBA from Harvard. He was spanked.
Our two nephews who weren't spanked joined scientology.
And spanking children frequently is part and parcel of the culture at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum, where IQ is statistically lower as well.
My father used to quote Machiavelli at us “Terror is cheaper than Force.”
We lived in absolute dread when we messed up remembering those two times we got it, and hoping there would never be a third. There never was.
I believe this like a ‘hole in the head’!!
I was spanked and grew up a decent and law abiding person. I spanked my 4 children and they are all good, Christian, law abiding people.
Look at the younger generation now, loose morals, foul mouths. Look at the schools where the kids have sex in the stairwells and fight each other. I could rant on forever on this topic.
Yep. My favorite trick was to admit to a lesser infraction. Worked every time.
That is not even a statistically significant difference.
My deepest apologies. ;-) I meant ‘Mr. Spock’. Gawd.......Freudian slip....and what-not. LOL!
This is totally backwards. Kids with higher IQs know how to avoid getting spankings!
People commended his parenting based upon reason and understanding, not knowing the iron grip of death.
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