In Case You Haven't Heard

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reiterated the harmful and ineffective nature of spanking last week, noting that new evidence suggests that spanking may cause harm by affecting normal brain development. The policy statement, “Effective Discipline to Raise Healthy Children,” was published in the December 2018 issue of Pediatrics . It also addresses the harm associated with verbal punishment, such as shaming or humiliation. “The good news is, fewer parents support the use of spanking than they did in the past,” said Robert D. Sege, M.D., Ph.D., a past member of the AAP Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect and co‐author of the policy statement. “Yet corporal punishment remains legal in many states, despite evidence that it harms kids — not only physically and mentally, but in how they perform at school and how they interact with other children.” Corporal punishment and harsh verbal abuse may cause a child to be fearful in the short term but do not improve behavior over the long term and may cause more aggressive behaviors, according to the AAP. In one study, young children who were spanked more than twice a month at age 3 were more aggressive at age 5. Those same children at age 9 still exhibited negative behaviors and lower receptive vocabulary scores, according to the research. In addition, striking, yelling at or shaming a child can elevate stress hormones and lead to changes in the brain's architecture. Harsh verbal abuse is also linked to mental health problems in preteens and adolescents.