Spanking and Child Development: We Know Enough Now to Stop Hitting Our Children
Open accessAbstract
Spanking remains a common, if controversial, childrearing practice in the United States. In this article, I pair mounting research indicating that spanking is both ineffective and harmful with professional and human rights opinions disavowing the practice. I conclude that spanking is a form of violence against children that should no longer be a part of American childrearing.
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Both spanking and physical abuse involve parents intentionally hitting and hurting children, albeit to different degrees.
“Both behaviors involve parents intentionally hitting (and hurting) children, albeit to different degrees (Gershoff, 2013)”
From Spanking and child outcomes: Old controversies and new meta-analyses. (2016) · cites this paper as Gershoff, 2013
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Cites
Gershoff, E. T. (2002) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.539 · Cited by 2,165 · see citing works
Dodge, K. A., Pettit, G. S., McClaskey, C. L., Brown, M. M., & Gottman, J. M. (1986) · Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development · doi:10.2307/1165906 · Cited by 1,203 · see citing works
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Research works printed but not linked: 15
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- Gershoff ET Grogan-Kaylor A Spanking and its consequences for children: New meta-analyses and old controversies 2013 Manuscript under review
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- Gershoff ET Lansford JE Sexton HR Davis-Kean PE Sameroff AJ Longitudinal links between spanking and children’s externalizing behaviors in a national sample of White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian American Families Child Development 2012 83 838 843 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01732.x 22304526 PMC7988802 · DOI · Paper page
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Spanking and child outcomes: Old controversies and new meta-analyses.
Gershoff, E. T., & Grogan-Kaylor, A. (2016) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/fam0000191 · Cited by 931 · see citing works
“Both behaviors involve parents intentionally hitting (and hurting) children, albeit to different degrees (Gershoff, 2013), and most instances of substantiated physical abuse (75%), like all instances of spanking, begin as responses to children’s misbehavior (Durrant et al.”
BackgroundInfluentialSelf-citationBerry, D., & Willoughby, M. T. (2017) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/cdev.12660 · Cited by 737 · see citing works
Afifi, T. O., Ford, D., Gershoff, E. T., Merrick, M., Grogan-Kaylor, A., Ports, K. A., MacMillan, H. L., Holden, G. W., Taylor, C. A., Lee, S. J., et al. (2017) · Child Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.01.014 · Cited by 246 · see citing works
Self-citationAfifi, T. O., Mota, N., Sareen, J., & MacMillan, H. L. (2017) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4359-8 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
Guyer, A. E., Jarcho, J. M., Pérez-Edgar, K., Degnan, K. A., Pine, D. S., Fox, N. A., & Nelson, E. E. (2015) · Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology · doi:10.1007/s10802-015-9973-2 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
The neglect–enrichment continuum: Characterizing variation in early caregiving environments
King, L. S., Humphreys, K. L., & Gotlib, I. H. (2019) · Developmental Review · doi:10.1016/j.dr.2019.01.001 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
- Authors
- Gershoff, E. T.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gershoff, Elizabeth T
- Venue
- Child Development Perspectives
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2013-08-12
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 133-137
- ISSN
- 1750-8592 (ISSN-L)
- 1750-8606
- PMC
- PMC3768154
- OpenAlex
- W2166768042
- Cited by
- 284
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 49 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 22.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Child Development Perspectives (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (5 R24 HD042849)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Health › Intimate Partner and Family Violence
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- spanking, corporal punishment, child development, child-rearing practices, violence against children, human rights, child welfare, parenting
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