Parents publicly spank their kids in surprising numbers: Researchers
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(CBS News) Nearly one in four parents or caregivers randomly observed by researchers publicly settled disputes with their child by hitting, spanking or some sort of physical contact, a new study shows.
Researchers at Michigan State University in East Lansing covertly camped out at public areas to get a realistic idea of how children are disciplined outside of a laboratory setting.
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Led by Dr. Kathy Stansbury, an associate professor of human development and family studies at Michigan State, researchers anonymously observed 106 instances of discipline in a public place between a caregiver and a young child who was between the ages 3 and 5 years old.
After recording everything they saw and analyzing the date, the researchers determined that 23 percent of the youngsters received "negative touch" - including arm pulling, pinching, slapping and spanking - as discipline in public places such as restaurants or parks.
The study is published in the August 3 issue of Behavior and Social Issues.
"I was very surprised to see what many people consider a socially undesirable behavior done by nearly a quarter of the caregivers," Stansbury said in a written statement. "I have also seen hundreds of kids and their parents in a lab setting and never once witnessed any of this behavior."
The researchers also observed 35 incidences of "positive touch" as discipline, including hugging, tickling or gentle patting. Male caregivers were more likely to touch a child during discipline than female ones, and the majority of the time it was in a positive manner.
Stansbury said that too was surprising because dads are stereotyped as disciplinarians while moms are nurturers.
"I do think that we are shifting as a society and fathers are becoming more involved in the daily mechanics of raising kids, and that's a good thing for the kids and also a good thing for the dads," she said.
And the dads might be onto something - kids disciplined with positive touch were more likely to comply more often and more quickly with less fussing than those punished by negative touch. Even if a child complied after being slapped, they often pouted or sulked afterwards, the researchers observed.
Stansbury said next time a child needs discipline, she recommends a gentle, positive touch because "negative touch didn't work" in her experiment.
A recent study published July2 in Pediatrics found that kids who experience harsh physical punishment like spanking, slapping, hitting, grabbing or shoving as a regular means of discipline were significantly more likely to have a mood, anxiety or personality disorder or abuse drugs as adults.
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2. Can they conduct research among themselves using their kids as samples and their particular methods as variables and give us the results so that we can use them for comparative purposes? Otherwise, they are talking loud and saying nothing....to me at least, because I have raised two very talented, professional and successful adults and I used my own discretion to chastise them whenever I deemed it appropriate.
With time one learns the retail outlets to shun to minimize interactions with the trashy ones and their even trashier progeny.
To provide the same response for both good and bad behavior is sending the wrong message to children. That tells them that all behavior is acceptable. My generation believed that to spare the rod spoils the child, and those who grew up during this time did not end up as shooters in mass killings like some do today. That's not to say that all that did grow up during this time were perfect, they were not. But respect for other people has gone by the wayside by those who do not try to teach their children the difference between what is acceptable behavior and what is not acceptable.
Yes!!!
I adapted the choke collar from the pet store and the obtained results were wondrous!!!
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Interesting. Raising children to be healthy, productive, and,for lack of a better word, civilized human beings is a full time job, not an "experiment". It requires patience, persistence, and above all else, consistency. And, just like housebreaking a puppy, both positive & negative reinforcement are needed. You reward good behaviour & punish bad behaviour. You don't confuse the child by making the forms of both rewards & punishments similar.
Now if only investment bankers' parents could have taught it, noting that all the sitcoms who had great fun after the events of, oh, 1987 managed to poke fun at the unethical acts of their day...
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"many people", or just "right minded progressives"?
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SURPRISE, Ms. Stansbury, your lab setting is an artificial environment that has absolutely no relationship to reality.