Corporal Punishments Influence On Children Mental Health

Introduction

When a kid hits another kid we call him a bully, when someone hits another person in order to steal we call him a mugger, when a man hits his wife we call him abusive, but when a man hits his helpless children in order to make him behave better, society calls him disciplinary.

Corporal Punishment can be defined as an intentional use of physical strength that parents often use as a quick way in order to make their children to behave better and make them feel bad about their misconduct, it is also often used to force the kid’s behavior in a certain way and show that they have power over the child. These kinds of punishments can be as mild as a few spanks or strong as a strangulation or denial of water and food.

Among the long-term effects is that physical punishment only damages the trust between the kid and the people around them, making it very difficult for them to relate to their friends or family and not managing their behavior in a very effective way, as it only solves the bad behavior in a temporal way.

It has been seen that in the long run, positive reinforces are much more efficient and treat any situation in a more direct way, because they help to correct the bad behavior in a way in which they make the child to feel safe and help them to internalize and understand what they have done wrong and that they should not repeat these actions because of the consequences they can get and to not cause any obstacles when looking for solutions.

I chose this topic for my extended essay because I find it very interesting that many parents believe that by applying physical force they will be able to fix their child's bad behavior and believe that he will not have any type of problems in the future.

It seems to me that it is very important to be informed of all the traumas that you can cause to the boy by imposing corporal punishment and that there are many physically and mentally healthier ways to correct a child's misconduct.

“The problem with corporal punishments and how it affects mentally to children between the ages of 5 and 8 as their relationship with their parents get fragile, it also influences their behavior in long term and it affects their mental health”

Body

Parents that were spanked when they were young, are more likely to pursue corporal punishments to their children as they were taught that it’s completely normal and that it’s for their own good and they think they turned just fine, without any problems. Parents see that by giving their son a few spanks, the kid ends his bad behavior almost immediately, and they believe that this will help them stop the child from being disrespectful and spoiled, but a lot of research by Elizabeth Gershoff, professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, The American Academy of Pediatrics, conformed with approximately 67,000 doctors and other important groups, show that, spanking is totally useless to solve long term misbehavior as through corporal punishments the children stop trusting their parents and learn that they should only behave correctly when their parents are close, thus continuing with their misconduct when there is no parent nearby and there is no possibility of physical punishment.

The impact that physical punishment has on the relationship between the parent and the children is considerably high since it affects the relationship in a very negative way as it makes the child be much more cautious when wanting to demonstrate physical affection or that the child will distrust the moments in which the father wants to show any type of physical affection, the kid could think that it’s just a way to soften them up to later punish them. Many children develop hatred for their parents and do not trust them in any way. Other children grow physically and emotionally distanced from their parents by not trusting them and not wanting to risk getting too close and end up being punished. Others believe that if corporal punishment had not been imposed on them, their relationship with their parent would have been much better, with much more trust, affection and without fear.

When physical punishment goes along with verbal abuse and mocking, is way worse than the corporal punishment alone as it only causes the child to be terrified of the punishment and gradually lose the relationship full of trust and affection he had before with his parents. The parents believe that because the punishment was only a few spanking or just a few insults and not a strong beating that leaves the child in serious conditions, it is good way to discipline the kid, but any kind of violence against a child is always bad, even if it is considered mild. Some children say that they can't stand being in the same places where their parents are, because they have an overwhelming fear of doing something their parents might consider wrong and end up being physically punished.

Some kids try to canalize the pain, anger and frustration that they are feeling, through screaming and self-harming as they can’t find another way to express and relieve their feelings. Obviously they can’t ask their parents for help, and most of the kids are way too scare to ask a teacher or an adult as they might not believe them or even if they do, sooner or later their parents will found out that the kid has been saying those things and they could hit and threaten the child so he doesn't say anything else about that topic again.