Montreal Gazette: Spanking Lower's Kids IQs

http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Spanking+lower+child/2032569/story.html

Children who are spared the rod may grow up to have higher IQs than those who are spanked, suggests a study by one of North America's foremost child psychology experts.

The U.S-based study, which will be presented Friday at the International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Trauma in San Diego, Calif., examined the IQ scores of 1,510 children aged two to four, and five to nine, and compared them with their IQ scores four years later.

Researcher Murray Straus found the younger children who were spanked scored an average of five points lower on their IQs, compared to children in their age group whose parents did not believe in corporal punishment.

Among the older group, the difference was pegged at 2.8 points.

Straus, a professor at the University of Hampshire who has been studying this topic for more than 50 years, said this was the third major U.S. study released this year showing a correlation between physical discipline and a child's intelligence.

"To put it in a nutshell, corporal punishment slows down the rate of development of mental ability," Straus said in a telephone interview from San Diego. "All the kids got smarter because they got older, but the ones who were spanked, less so."

Corporal punishment was defined in the study as hitting a child, usually on the buttocks, at least three times a week. The one who usually did the spanking was the mother.

Straus said his study, which will also be published next week in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, took into account other factors that may affect mental development, such as the family's socio-economic status and the parents' education levels.

He found that, not only was there a correlation between how often a child was hit and how slow his mental development was, there was also a link showing younger children were the most affected by spankings.

"That's kind of the cruelly ironic thing, because we hear that it's OK to hit younger children because they won't remember it," said Straus. "This evidence says it's worse for children between two to six, that the younger child is the most vulnerable."

For his research, Straus also analyzed surveys done by nearly 18,000 students in 32 countries — including Canada — and found that, generally, countries with high national-average IQs were nations that had banned, or do not socially accept, spanking.

The exceptions were the top five countries on the average-IQ list: Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. Straus attributed the discrepancy to a strong emphasis in those nations on academic excellence.

In the other countries surveyed, university students who were hit by their caregivers as children still exhibited signs of post-traumatic stress and fear that negative things would happen to them, which may be signs related to a lower IQ, said Straus.

In Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada issued a 6-3 ruling in 2004, upholding section 43 of the Criminal Code that said parents and caregivers are allowed to use reasonable force when disciplining a child no younger than two years old.

Bill S-209, which outlined the court's decision, made its way to a third reading in the Senate in June 2008, but never became law, because Parliament dissolved for an election.

Two dozen countries worldwide have banned spanking by parents and teachers, including Finland, Norway and Austria.

David Day, an associate psychology professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, said parents should be using positive-reinforcement techniques instead of striking their children.

"What spanking doesn't do is promote cognitive development or language and problem-solving abilities in children," said Day, who studies aggression and anti-social behaviour in children and youth. "It's very frightening for a child because, at a young age, they'll have the inability to deal with stress and be afraid of being hit. It really has long-term consequences for children."

He said corporal punishment is usually coupled with other negative parenting techniques, such as yelling, the removal of privileges or food, which would also be detrimental to a children's mental and emotional development.

The Child Welfare League of Canada said this study adds to a body of international research that shows the lasting effects of hitting a child.

"There's so much research that shows children who are brought up in that atmosphere and exposed to violence grow up thinking they're allowed to hit when they're displeased with a situation," said Gordon Phaneuf, a spokesman with the advocacy group. "So much of corporal punishment is done in a context that is very scary and upsetting. It shouldn't really surprise us that children will come away with messages that are very negative to the sense of who they are."

Phaneuf said Canada's reluctance to ban corporal punishment outright is sending the wrong message.

"Spanking clearly violates the rights of children as individuals. We know that hitting children is not an effective parenting technique," he said. "Just as you wouldn't hit a spouse or a senior parent or someone else you're caring for, you don't hit the most vulnerable people in society: our children."
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