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Physical Punishment Ruins Children’s Mental Health, Psychologists Say

Child psychologists have shared why parents should be stepping away from hitting their children as a punishment for bad behavior.

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Despite physical punishments, such as spanking and hitting being used less and less, eighty-one percent of parents here in the U.S. still feel physical punishment is “sometimes appropriate.”

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“It’s a very controversial area even though the research is extremely telling and very clear and consistent about the negative effects on children,” said Sandra Graham-Bermann, a principal investigator for the Child Violence and Trauma Laboratory at the University of Michigan.

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“People get frustrated and hit their kids. Maybe they don’t see there are other options,” she added.

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But what some parents might not know is that this type of punishment has serious consequences for children’s mental health as they develop.

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One study even found that verbal abuse from parents such as belittling, shouting, and threatening kids is just as bad as physical punishments.

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The study, which evaluated almost 1000 American families from different backgrounds, revealed that children who were verbally punished by their parents developed depressive symptoms in adolescence.

It was also reported that children who were subjected to physical abuse when they were young were more likely to be aggressive later on in life, and act out more emotionally.

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It was recorded in 2012 that fifty-four percent of physical abuse cases reportedly show children being hit by their parents using their hands. Thirty percent were “shaken, pushed, grabbed, or thrown,” twenty-one percent were “hit with an object,” while eight percent were “punched, kicked, or bitten.”

And most of those cases led to depressive symptoms and anxiety in children along with self-esteem problems later in life.

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It has been advised by psychologists to use other ways of disciplining a child instead of physical or verbal punishments, such as removing them from a situation by giving them a time-out or taking something away, such as a game or toy until they have calmed down.

What is your stance on physical and verbal punishment?