Smacked children to make successful adults: Study

Researchers in the United States have found that kids, who are hit by their parents up to the age of six, have greater chances of growing up as happy, content individuals than those who got way without being smacked in their childhood.

Smacked children were more likely to take on voluntary work and were found to be more eager to attend university, said researchers at the Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

This kind of support for beating up of children may agitate the campaigners of children’s rights, who have, from time to time, tried to seek a ban on smacking of children in Britain but in vain.

Smacking for success
Marjorie Gunnoe, Professor of psychology at the Calvin College in Michigan said her study reveals that the evidence indicating violent behavior or long-term harm of children as a consequence of childhood-smacking was unsatisfactory.

“The claims made for not spanking children fail to hold up. They are not consistent with the data,” said Gunnoe. “I think of spanking as a dangerous tool, but there are times when there is a job big enough for a dangerous tool. You just don’t use it for all your jobs.”

According to Gunnoe, children who are not physically-disciplined by their parents at a young age may even fail to develop self-discipline and lack social skills, which could keep them from succeeding in life.

Smack kids in specific age group
The research, which involved 2,600 people, reveals that smacking children is good but only up to a certain age, after which it may become problematic.

While smacking children between the ages of two and six may benefit them in the long run, the study highlighted the fact that if parents continue smacking their kids during adolescence, they might end up showing behavioral problems.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children refuses to accept the findings of the study. "The NSPCC believes that children should have the same legal protection from assault as adults do,” said a spokeswoman for the charity.

Child-rights people may be upset over they study but Gunnoe has found one supporter in Aric Sigman, a psychologist and author of The Spoilt Generation: Why Restoring Authority will Make our Children and Society Happier.

“The idea that smacking and violence are on a continuum is a bizarre and fetishised view of what punishment or smacking is for most parents,” he said. “If it’s done judiciously by a parent who is normally affectionate and sensitive to their child, our society should not be up in arms about that. Parents should be trusted to distinguish this from a punch in the face.”