College Students More Likely to Be Lawbreakers If Spanked as Children

reply to post by wildtimes


This is from ~40 years ago memory . . . and I've never tracked down the research since . . .

There was about 40 years ago a landmark NIMH, IIRC funded massive research study which looked at ALL the relevant research to that date on

CHILD REARING PRACTICES and OUTCOMES DEFINED AS SUCCESSFUL ADULTS.

That is, they wanted to know from all the available research to date, exactly WHAT parenting factors resulted in children WHO WERE SUCCESSFUL AS ADULTS.

SUCCESS AS ADULTS WAS DEFINED AS:

1. No trouble with the law.
2. Not on welfare
3. Stable marriage, no divorce
4. Stable work record

They looked at all kinds of factors . . .

1. socioeconomics
2. single parenting
3. types of punishment
4. strict parenting and stern discipline.
5. lackadaisical parenting with no discipline
6. harsh abusive punishment and discipline
7. parental educational backgrounds
etc. etc. etc.

ONE factor

accounted for 80% OF THE VARIANCE.

That is, if this one factor was absent, there was an 80% greater chance that the individual would not be a successful adult. And vice versa. [I think my math is right. That's not my strength. LOL]

Certainly the 80% of the variance was accurate.

What do you guess was that one factor?

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That the child was loved?

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NOPE.

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It was found that children could be SOMEWHAT genuinely loved WITHOUT FEELING loved.

The critical factor was

DID the child FEEL LOVED?

THAT made virtually all the difference.

I'd love to see that body of research compared meaningfully factor by factor with this latest research.

I'm sure the same is essentially true in this era. Probably the factors have been refined to a large degree with more detailed correlations and associations coming to light.
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Personally i been spanked and bambooed lol.

I think children need more than "go to your room!" or "no TV" in this day and age.


No wonder there is no respect now a days, children rule parents, children hold advantage.


"don't hit me, ill call children's aid!"

This is one of the most absurd assertions I've heard in my life. I can't believe people were paid for this "research".

I don't know about kids being worse now a days, my dad was telling me the other day about his teenage years out on the town in Liverpool where a weekend night out on the town was not complete without bunches of young men going at each other with flick knives and razor blades leading them and anyone in the vicinity getting thrown in large numbers into the back of police vans. You don't see anything like that now.

My dad grew up in a place and time where smacking (sometimes with a slipper or belt) where commonplace and kids received the cane in school for bad behaviour.

This is obvioulsy only my Dad's experience but I just wanted to throw that in to balance out the opposite outcomes others say they have seen.

How did he get those results anyway? I want to see methods that were used to find this data. Right now, this is no more than some made up junk really.

Lurker1
This is one of the most absurd assertions I've heard in my life. I can't believe people were paid for this "research".

I STILL SAY . . .

IT GREATLY DEPENDS on what sort of whacks at what age by whom with what and in what sort of relationship with the one doing the whacking and for what.

DISCIPLINE--PARTICULARLY HARSH DISCIPLINE

WITHOUT

SUFFICIENT QUALITY RELATIONSHIP

WILL VIRTUALLY ALWAYS BREED REBELLION.

That rebellion may last life-long.

And, certainly that rebellion would likely contribute seriously to lawbreaking.

I do not believe that reasonable whacks without bruising . . . and not done in unreasonable or significant or hostile anger . . . for very serious acting out--defiance and rebellion--primarily--for a suitable period of years--usually ending around puberty . . . can be beneficial without causing rebellion.

HOWEVER, NOT, if the parent has not formed a sufficiently close relationship with the child.

And USUALLY, IF the parent does have a close relationship--a look or a talking to is more than sufficient discipline.

charlie555
How did he get those results anyway? I want to see methods that were used to find this data. Right now, this is no more than some made up junk really.

Well that's the whole thing here isn't it? For the most part Sociology and psychology are both junk sciences anyway, they are very liquid and sticky, and most of the stuff that comes from it stinks to high heaven.

After scrolling through every page of this thread so far, I cant see that anyone has yet raised a glaring issue with the report...

university students who were spanked as children are more likely to ...

Because its a study of Uni students, you've selected out a non-representative group of people.
More importantly, you've rejected the overwhelming vast majority of people (poor and uneducated) who would normally go to prison in the first place.

So whats the point of concluding anything from this study at all?

Some children are uncontrollable without a good, quick sharp shock of a spanking. I was one of them. I'm glad my parents were loving enough to give me a few spankings when I was a kid than taking me to some shrink that would have labeled me a problem child and had me watched or put me on enough drugs to turn me into a zombie.

What a crook. More progressive agenda BS