More Harm than Good: a Summary of Scientific Research on the Intended and Unintended Effects of Corporal Punishment on Children

The use of corporal punishment to discipline children remains one of the last holdouts of old-fashioned childrearing in the United States. Gone are the days of administering cod-liver oil to prevent rickets, spreading alcohol on babies’ gums to dull teething pain, or even putting children to sleep on their stomachs to prevent choking on fluids—practices that have been repeated by generations of dutiful parents across centuries. The modern age of child-rearing experts has ushered in a new set of parenting techniques thought to promote optimal child development, including teaching children to use signs from American Sign Language to communicate before they are able to verbalize words, protecting children in fancy (and expensive) car seats that were unheard of even twenty years ago, and using time-out as a preferred means of discipline. Yet corporal punishment of children persists—roughly fifty percent of the parents of toddlers and sixty-five to sixty-eight percent of the parents of preschoolers in the United States use corporal punishment as a regular method of disciplining their children. By the time American children reach middle and high school, eighty-five percent have been physically punished by their parents. These high prevalence rates are in stark contrast to the growing consensus