To Spank or not to Spank?
The Answer to be Decided in Massachusetts
By Tiffany Rose/Additional reporting by Ryan Rose (December 6, 2007)

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.—According to a November article in the Boston Herald, corporal punishment in the home has become illegal in 19 countries, including Austria, Germany, Iceland, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden and the Ukraine, among others.

Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives attended a hearing last Wednesday to discuss whether or not they will choose to pass a proposed bill that will regulate how parents can discipline their children, but have yet to reach a decision.

Lexington Democratic Representative Jay Kaufman filed House Bill 3922 on behalf of a 61-year-old nurse, Kathleen Wolf, who petitioned the bill after her daughter said some of her friends were spanked by their parents.

If passed, this bill would make Massachusetts the first state in the U.S. to ban corporal punishment, which has drawn much criticism about whether or not parents would still have the right spank their children as a form of correction.

In last week’s hearing, Kaufman said he is “not concerned about or wishing to have the state prevent parents from using incidental or minor physical contact to maintain order or control or to discipline their children.”

Kaufman also said his primary concern is to eliminate child abuse in Massachusetts after he reviewed a study by the Department of Social Services which showed 19,000 cases of child abuse in Massachusetts had been reported in a three-month period at the beginning of this year. However, there are many parents and conservative groups who are concerned about the implications of such a bill.

Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting basic family values, said, “This bill equates loving, corrective discipline with hateful, harmful abuse.”

According to House Bill 3922, “It shall be unlawful in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for any adult to inflict corporal punishment upon a child. The infliction of corporal punishment on a child may be a basis for a finding of abuse and neglect.”

One of the definitions Dictionary.com has listed for corporal punishment is, “physical punishment, as spanking, inflicted on a child by an adult in authority.”

Vice president of the American College of Pediatricians, Dr. Den Trumbull, said he believes this bill should not be passed.

“I think it’s a bad bill, because there is no evidence that spanking by parents in a loving manner causes harm, first of all,” said Trumbull. “And second of all, there is a need for spanking to control behavior of children, particularly younger than six years of age when reasoning and explanation are unsuccessful.”

Trumbull said there is a direct difference in disciplinary spanking and physical abuse. Physical abuse results in harm to the child and emanates from a desire to cause harm, while spanking is not intended to cause harm, but is simply intended to cause unpleasantness on the part of the parent to persuade the young child to behave.

According to Trumbull, spanking, which is used at least some of the time by approximately 90 percent of parents who have toddlers and preschoolers, is best if implemented on children between the ages of 18 months to six years. Trumbull has researched how and when it is necessary to spank a child.

“Beyond those ages, privilege removal and grounding are actually more effective than spanking,” Trumbull stated. “Spanking should always be done in private; it should not be humiliating to the child. The child should be forewarned of the consequence of the offense, and the spanking should be followed by a loving embrace by the parent and a review of the offense so the child is very clear about why he or she received the spanking.”

Trumbull also said parents should use milder measures first when correcting behavior.

“For the young child, that might be disapproval. It might be redirection or distraction. It might be a natural consequence, and it might be timeout. But when milder measures fail, spanking is often necessary for those persistently defiant children to persuade them to comply with the parent’s request,” Trumbull explained.

Spanking, like any other disciplinary measure, can be misused, but there are many common misconceptions about this method of punishment, according to Trumbull.

“Those opposed to spanking take two approaches: One is that it is unnecessary, and I would suggest that it is necessary, because a parent’s disciplinary methods with young children are limited in number,” said Trumbull. “Philosophically, they would take the approach that punishment is not necessary, and there’s good research evidence to show that children are not in general persuaded by explanation and reasoning most of the time.”

This bill, which was brought before the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities, is currently being held. In the meantime, the bill can be revised, redrafted, or put into a study. The committee has until December of 2008 to reach a decision.
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To find further information on disciplining and raising children, go to the American College of Pediatrician’s Web site, www.acpeds.org.

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