Physical Punishment

Children who are disciplined with a slap or a spanking are generally less competent--and less confident--than children who don't receive physical punishment in the home, according to a San Diego State University study released Monday. The study, conducted this spring and summer in several San Diego County elementary schools, examined the effect of physical punishment on a child's self-esteem. According to Dr. Anthony J.

NEW YORK — This might be the year to expect some surprises at the U.S. Open. Play in the year's final tennis major begins Monday at 8 a.m. PDT, with defending women's champion Samantha Stosur getting the honor of opening on Arthur Ashe Stadium against Petra Martic of Croatia. And the first men on Ashe court will be third-seeded Andy Murray, the newly crowned Olympic champion, and Alex Bogomolov Jr., who once played as an American and now represents Russia. This summer has been jam-packed with the insertion of the Olympics into the short space between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

The timing of the study's release was good - at the start of summer when kids running wild are bound to get on Mom and Dad's nerves. But its message wasn't necessarily something those harried parents will want to hear: If you spank your children, even occasionally, you're setting them up for a lifetime of mental and emotional distress. That's the conclusion of a study by researchers from two Canadian universities. They asked 35,000 American adults whether their parents had ever hit, grabbed, pushed, shoved or slapped them while they were growing up. Those who'd been physically punished, but not abused - about 2,100 of those surveyed - had a higher risk of personality disorders and substance abuse.

Re "Spanking: a broader context," Column, July 21 Sandy Banks is correct that the scientific studies are just correlational and don't actually prove that spanking is harmful. But she omits important aspects of the debate. Spanking actually works as a means of suppressing behavior. Physical punishment is still the most powerful method for immediately suppressing undesirable behavior, which is why police and soldiers rely on it. With certain extreme behaviors - playing with matches or biting other children - spanking might still be the right intervention for some children.

A child who is spanked, slapped, grabbed or shoved as a form of punishment runs a higher risk of becoming an adult who suffers from a wide range of mental and personality disorders, even when that harsh physical punishment was occasional and when the child experienced no more extreme form of violence or abuse at the hands of a parent or caregiver, says a new study . Among adults who reported harsh physical punishment short of physical or...

Turkey, faced with a hunger strike by nearly 2,000 inmates protesting harsh prison rules, will abolish physical punishment in jails, Justice Minister Oltan Sungurlu said. "Physical punishments with disciplinary purpose such as chaining of prisoners, solitary confinement in dark cells and bread-and-water diets are being abolished," he told the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency.

The two articles in the March 3 edition of The Times about elephants illustrate why these animals should not be kept in captivity. In the first article ("Bill Would Ban Zoo Elephant Rides, Limit Discipline"), we learn that disciplinary techniques have become so severe that it has become necessary to legislate controls and limits to what can be done to elephants. Kindness and good husbandry/management can never be legislated, it is dependent upon rapport with and understanding of the animal.

A flat-handed swat on the bottom would still be legal, but parents would be prohibited from whacking children with a cane, belt or any other instrument under a government proposal released Tuesday. Smacking a child on the head and boxing his ears also could become criminal offenses, with parents who did so subject to fines or jail sentences if the Health Department recommendations become law.

Re "Spanking: a broader context," Column, July 21 Sandy Banks is correct that the scientific studies are just correlational and don't actually prove that spanking is harmful. But she omits important aspects of the debate. Spanking actually works as a means of suppressing behavior. Physical punishment is still the most powerful method for immediately suppressing undesirable behavior, which is why police and soldiers rely on it. With certain extreme behaviors - playing with matches or biting other children - spanking might still be the right intervention for some children.

The timing of the study's release was good - at the start of summer when kids running wild are bound to get on Mom and Dad's nerves. But its message wasn't necessarily something those harried parents will want to hear: If you spank your children, even occasionally, you're setting them up for a lifetime of mental and emotional distress. That's the conclusion of a study by researchers from two Canadian universities. They asked 35,000 American adults whether their parents had ever hit, grabbed, pushed, shoved or slapped them while they were growing up. Those who'd been physically punished, but not abused - about 2,100 of those surveyed - had a higher risk of personality disorders and substance abuse.

A child who is spanked, slapped, grabbed or shoved as a form of punishment runs a higher risk of becoming an adult who suffers from a wide range of mental and personality disorders, even when that harsh physical punishment was occasional and when the child experienced no more extreme form of violence or abuse at the hands of a parent or caregiver, says a new study . Among adults who reported harsh physical punishment short of physical or...

A Bay Area lawmaker retreated from her proposed ban on spanking and instead offered a bill Thursday that would criminalize parental discipline involving a closed fist, belt, electrical cord, shoe or other objects. Additionally, the legislation by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View) would make it easier to prosecute anyone who throws, kicks, burns, chokes or cuts a child younger than 18.

A flat-handed swat on the bottom would still be legal, but parents would be prohibited from whacking children with a cane, belt or any other instrument under a government proposal released Tuesday. Smacking a child on the head and boxing his ears also could become criminal offenses, with parents who did so subject to fines or jail sentences if the Health Department recommendations become law.

It began with the behavioral problems of several boys at St. John's Lutheran School--smart-alecky talk during classes, disrespect toward teachers and disregard of school rules. But in the year since two of the boys were expelled, these disciplinary problems have turned to legal ones amid allegations that teachers hit and shoved them and the pastor belittled and humiliated them.

They may not resemble Popeye's burly Brutus or Charlie Brown's loudmouthed Lucy, but bullies invade our lives from the schoolyard to corporate headquarters. They threaten. They yell. They massage their egos by making us squirm. They try to screw up our lives--often because someone or something has screwed up theirs.

In recent years we have become more alert to the harm done children by, of all people, their mothers and fathers, or their teachers in school--the bodily assaults that can scar the skin, break bones, damage vital organs, and, not least, evoke serious psychological troubles that don't readily go away.

A 14-year-old National City boy accused of murdering his father during an argument said Monday that he had talked before the incident about shooting his father rather than face further physical punishment. The boy said that he had handled the gun used in the Oct. 28 shooting death almost every day.

I hadn't suffered my first altitude headache, hadn't camped one night. In fact, I hadn't even seen Mt. Kilimanjaro's summit when the reality of climbing Africa's highest mountain hit me. Almost literally. I was enjoying my first day of fulfilling a dream. Whistling merrily through Kilimanjaro's lowland rain forest, I waved at villagers gathering firewood. I played staredown with the monkeys in the trees.

A 14-year-old National City boy accused of murdering his father during an argument said Monday that he had talked before the incident about shooting his father rather than face further physical punishment. The boy said that he had handled the gun used in the Oct. 28 shooting death almost every day.