December 1, 2005. Spanking Fosters Anxiety and Aggression [journal article review]

http://www.peacefulsocieties.org/NAR/051201thai.html


December 1, 2005. Spanking Fosters Anxiety and Aggression [journal
article review]

Research conducted in America has shown that spanking children may
foster their aggressive tendencies, but a recent investigation
indicates that the cultural context of discipline is quite
significant. In the current issue of Child Development, Jennifer E.
Lansford from Duke University and a team of 14 co-authors report on
the results of their study of physical discipline in six countries-
Kenya, Italy, India, China, Philippines, and Thailand. They found that
the amount of discipline administered by caregivers varied widely in
the six societies, depending on the cultural values of each one.

Not surprisingly, in Thailand, where 95 percent of the population is
Buddhist and, according to the article, the "social values are closely
related to Buddhist teachings" (p.1237), physical discipline of
children is minimal. At the opposite end of the spectrum, children are
subject to the most spanking in Kenya, a country where physical
punishment is most positively valued.

The article indicates that since the Thai Buddhists value compassion,
warmth, and kindness, they seek to avoid friction in their
interpersonal relationships. They rarely criticize, confront, or
impose their will on others, and they socialize their children to
defer to other people and to be peaceful. These Buddhist Thai values,
they maintain, are reflected in the research results.

Since much of the literature on child discipline is based on American
families, the 15 authors wanted to find out whether the effects of
discipline on the adjustment of children vary in different cultural
settings. In societies that easily accept physical discipline, they
hypothesized, children should not be affected as much by spanking as
children would be in cultures where it is not the norm.

They based their selection of countries on their desire to gain a
broad perspective on beliefs and practices related to child
discipline. They wanted to include cultures that ranged from
individualistic to collectivist orientations, that had differing
ideological and historical perspectives on punishment, that
represented differing religious affiliations, and that had different
legal approaches to child discipline. They were not surprised that the
results showed that Thailand and Kenya were at opposite ends of the
spectrum in their acceptance of physical punishment.

They selected 336 children from the six countries and interviewed them
and their parents about the discipline measures that parents used.
They questioned the parents to find out how often they used different
types of discipline strategies. Children were asked, not about their
own parents' discipline patterns, but about the punishment strategies
that parents in general use.

Parents and children were also given behavior assessments, measures
that tried to determine what kinds of internalized and externalized
behavior problems the children had developed. For instance, the
children were asked, in the Youth Self-Report measure, to rate the
truth of such as statements as "I worry a lot" or "I get into many
fights."

The results showed that the children who were disciplined were not as
adversely affected in cultural situations where such discipline is
normative as they were in situations where it is not acceptable. The
more the society as a whole accepts the need for spanking, the less
seriously it will affect the adjustment of the children. To turn that
statement around, they concluded that in societies that strongly
devalued punishment, such as Thailand, even the occasional use of
physical discipline runs a high risk of fostering aggressive behavior
and anxiety in children.

However, they also found that, in all countries, higher use of
physical discipline, regardless of how normative it might be, was
clearly associated with greater behavioral problems in children.
Greater use of discipline resulted in children who were more anxious
and more prone to being aggressive themselves.

Lansford et al. emphasize that conditions are not uniform in the
countries they studied. In Thailand, behaviors and attitudes toward
discipline vary. Thailand has recently had to enact child protection
laws because of concerns about child abuse. The present study did not
address possible variations within their target countries.

The lead researcher, Jennifer Lansford, made an interesting summary
statement about the research to a reporter from the Reuters Health
service. Lansford was quoted by Reuters as questioning, "whether
physical discipline is appropriate in this day and age, regardless of
how accepted it may be [in different cultural contexts]."

Lansford, Jennifer E. et al. 2005. "Physical Discipline and Children's
Adjustment: Cultural Normativeness as a Moderator." Child Development
76(6): 1234-1246.