Posted by:
robertb
(
)
Date: June 22, 2013 04:51PM
The American Psychological Association has weighed in on spanking. It's harmful. Kids who are hit experience more depression, more anxiety, more social problems, and more difficulty coping with problems of life than kids who don't. It affects not only their childhood, but their adulthood and very possibly their rest of their lives.
Of the traumatized men I see in my work, those who suffer worse are those who were physically (or emotionally) abused as children as well as traumatized by war. Men in their 60s still hurt and sometimes cry from what an abusive father or mother has done to them--and these are tough men. Looking at them you'd never think they were hurt so badly.
Hitting kids is a set-up to make life much more difficult for them later regardless of what they encounter. I think dismissing the seriousness of physical and emotional abuse as "PC" is one way to avoid the recollection of being hurt and helpless, to avoid the fact that they were less loved than they hoped and needed, and, for some parents, to avoid guilt for hitting their own kids.
I was hit as a kid and it *still* affects me more than 50 years later.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/spanking.aspxhttp://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/the-long-term-effects-of-spanking/253425/http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-me-in-we/201202/how-spanking-harms-the-brainEdited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2013 05:02PM by robertb.