Quote:
Originally Posted by WanderingJuniper
I found the study quoted. It does not say what he thinks it says.
http://www. berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2001/08/24_spank.html
Take the spaces out.
It's from 2001. 100 families who spank moderately. Specifically excludes frequent spanking. Does not include spanking with any objects. Only followed the families unto the children were 14 years old which in my opinion is the weakest point of all.
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OK, interesting! Thanks!
I took a look. The web page is the official
Press Release about the study. It gives the main points of the study in order to inform the public about it. The study itself may also be somewhere on-line, but it is probably very dry stuff, difficult to read, with lot of numbers and other difficult stuff. A press release tells the main points in a condensed way and in a language that opens up for everyone.
The study was a longitudinal study on about 100 families during 10 years. The families were tested and interviewed three times; the first time when the children were preschoolers (about 4yo, a long time
after the Pearlian Proper Glue-Stick Age) and the last time when they were about 14yo.
This passage here was a very revealing point about the selection of the families and the researcher's
definition on moderate or "normative" spanking, I will quote it directly and outline some things in boldface:
Begin quote:
"A small minority of parents - - - used physical punishment often and with some intensity. - - - Hitting occurred frequently, but it was the intensity that really identified this group, said Baumrind.
She said intensity was rated high if the parent said he or she used a paddle or other instrument to strike the child, or hit on the face or torso, or lifted to throw or shake the child.
This group of parents, identified in the "red zone" for "stop" was removed from the sample at the first stage of analysis.”
End quote.
So...all parents that implemented spanking according to Suzannah Wessley-style, Larry Christenson -style, Dobson-style, Fugate-stlye, Tedd Tripp -style, Pearl style...were considered "red zone" and were excluded from the final sample. It was already considered obvious and proven that "red zone style" was harmful, and the study did not focus on it's effects. The researchers were more interested in how an occasional, non-frequent and non-intense slap with an open hand on the buttocks or something like that affected the children. Why even to call it spanking at all?
So...even the study claims to be on the effect of spanking, it is actually about something else. It is about some type of corporal punishment, yes. But when we hear the word "spanking", most of us associate it with belts, paddles, the ridiculous proverbial "board of education", tree twigs, wooden spoons and other implements. And the study was not about them.