Physical punishment (or “corporal punishment”) involves the use of physical force—spanking, hitting—to try to change or punish a child’s behavior. Just recently, a United States senator from Oklahoma commented on how he used his belt to punish his children; the same had been done to him by his parents.

The impact of physical punishment has been researched extensively, and the problems associated with it are remarkable. Joan Durrant, Elizabeth Gershoff, George Holden, Murray Straus, and Silvan Tomkins have been especially helpful in opening our eyes to the issues.

George Holden noted “…there is now a very large corpus of studies, numbering well over 1,500 empirical investigations, that have established that this behavior is linked to a variety of negative outcomes” (2020). In a comprehensive study, Straus et al (2014) summarized 15 harmful effects associated with physical punishment.

More antisocial behavior and delinquency as a child and as a young adult

More approval of other forms of violence

More impulsiveness and less self-control

Worse parent-child relationships

More risky sexual behaviors as a teenager

More juvenile delinquency

More crime perpetrated as an adult

Lower national average mental ability

Less probability of graduation from college

High probability of depression

More violence against marital, cohabitating, and dating partners

More violence against non-family persons

More physical abuse of children

More sexual coercion and physically forced sex

Worldwide and United States

Worldwide, the number of states........

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