Some people might spank children because they believe it will teach self-control. But the evidence tells us otherwise. In fact, research indicates that spanking actually interferes with the development of inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility — skills permit kids to resist impulses and respond appropriately to rules.
As I’ve written elsewhere, there is ample evidence to suggest that children’s behavior tends to worsen when their parents use spanking as a disciplinary response. In addition, a brain imaging study hints that spanking prompts children to become more focused on threats, which might bias them to respond more negatively towards other people (Cuartas et al 2021).
Such research (and everyday intuition) has led many people to wonder if spanking also undermines executive function – a package of skills that includes
inhibitory control (your ability to resist inappropriate impulses)
cognitive flexibility (the tendency to adapt quickly in response to changing rules or requirements); and
working memory (your capacity for keeping multiple pieces of information “in mind”).
And the first two – inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility – map pretty closely onto what most people mean when the talk about “self-control”.
So if we routinely spank children, how will this affect the development of executive function? Does spanking teach kids self-control? Or does it actually have a negative impact?
As you might imagine, this is hard to prove in a scientific way. It’s not as if we can conduct controlled experiments — randomly assigning some unfortunate kids to a regimen of spanking, and then following them over time.
And the thing is, we really do need to control a lot of variables to figure this out. Spanking doesn’t happen randomly throughout the population. There are circumstances that make it more common – such as parenting stress, cultural norms, and the pre-existing behavioral tendencies of a child.
For example, some kids are more difficult or challenging to wrangle. They may be more impulsive, rambunctious, or confrontational, prompting parents to impose disciplinary tactics — including spanking.
These circumstances can shape development in their own right, above and beyond any effects that spanking might have.
Moreover, there are factors that tend to co-occur with the absence of spanking, like high levels of caregiver warmth, and providing kids with lots of cognitive stimulation. And these positive, nurturing factors tend help kids develop self-regulation and social skills.
So merely observing that spanking is correlated with certain outcomes isn’t enough. We need to filter out all the other things that contribute to those outcomes.
Using powerful statistical techniques to get answers
It’s a daunting task, but researchers like Jeehye Kang are working on it. Along with her colleague Christina Rodriguez, she has tracked thousands of young children over the course of a year, and looked to see if early exposure to spanking is related to subsequent changes in the development of executive function.
The researchers had a sample of more than 12,000 kids to study, and they started with a snapshot of children’s executive function skills at the age of five. This included
teacher ratings of children’s inhibitory control;
cognitive flexibility (measured by performance on cognitive tests requiring kids to switch back and forth between difficult game rules); and
working memory performance (estimated by a child’s ability to repeat back short number sequences in a standard psychological test).
In addition, the researchers asked parents how many times they had spanked their kids over the previous week.
And – based reports from both teachers and parents – Kang and Rodriguez collected extensive information about all sorts of non-spanking factors that might affect the development of executive function, such as
pre-existing characteristics of the child (like the child’s sex and any behavior problems);
social and cultural factors (like parent’s education level and religious practices); and
characteristics of the home environment (like caregiver warmth, parenting stress, family income, and cognitive stimulation).
With this wealth of information, the researchers weren’t just able to compare kids who had been spanked and those who hadn’t. Using a technique called “entropy balancing,” they could also make statistical adjustments to equalize all this initial, background variation between groups.
So, yes, at the beginning of the study, the children who were being spanked had the odds stacked against them. They began with lower executive function scores, and more risk factors for getting worse.
But after entropy balancing, the groups were statistically well-matched. Same initial executive function scores (on average), and same range of variation. Same rate of behavior problems. Similar mix of ethnic, regional, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Equivalent rates of parental warmth, stressors, and cognitive stimulation at home.
The next step was to check back in a year later, when the children were 6 years old. What were executive function skills like now? Were there any differences between groups?
The answer was yes. Being spanked at age 5 was linked with lower executive functioning at age 6 – even after adjusting for initial levels of executive functioning and other factors.
The effects were quite small, and they were found only in two of the three areas measured – inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. But they had survived the rigorous statistical controls that the researchers had put into place.
The takeaway? We can’t justify spanking as a way to “teach self-control.”
It doesn’t surprise me that spanking didn’t move the needle on working memory. As I’ve noted elsewhere, working memory capacity is pretty stable.
But as for the other skills – inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility – what can we conclude?
The effect sizes were modest, so it might seem that this research isn’t particularly important. But when it comes to possible justifications for spanking, I think it’s very important indeed.
People often cite “teaching self-control” as a justification for spanking. That’s the whole point of the old adage, “spare the rod and spoil the child.” You aren’t spanking merely to reprimand or punish. You believe you are shaping future behavior – so that kids will learn to resist their impulses, and self-regulate so they keep in compliance with the rules.
So what we have now is good evidence that – far from teaching self-control – spanking actually does the opposite.
And this isn’t the only point weighing against the use of spanking.
As I mentioned earlier, studies indicate that spanking is linked with a pattern of worsening outcomes over time. Behavior problems tend to increase, rather than decrease.
Moreover, young children who are spanked are more likely to experience lags in cognitive development and social competence (Berlin et al 2009; Cuartas et al 2020; Cuartas 2024; Kang 2022). Spanking may increase the risk of emotional difficulties, poor parent-child relationships, and even physical abuse. And research tells that other disciplinary methods – methods that don’t employ physical punishment – are more effective for improving behavior. Read more about this here.
So, as Elizabeth Gershoff has long argued, we know enough to stop spanking kids (Gershoff 2013). And if while parents are correct in believing in the importance of self-control, spanking isn’t the way to foster it.
For the best supported practices, check out these Parenting Science articles:
References
Cuartas J. 2024. Estimating the association between spanking and early childhood development using between- and within-child analyses. Psychology of Violence 14(2): 77–86.
Cuartas J, McCoy DC, Grogan-Kaylor A, and Gershoff E. 2020 Physical punishment as a predictor of early cognitive development: Evidence from econometric approaches. Developmental Psychology 56(11): 2013–2026.
Gershoff ET. 2013. Spanking and Child Development: We Know Enough Now To Stop Hitting Our Children. Child Dev Perspect. 7(3):133-137.
Kang J and Rodriguez CM. 2023. Spanking and executive functioning in US children: A longitudinal analysis on a matched sample. Child Abuse Negl. 146:106474.
Kang J. 2022. Spanking and children’s social competence: Evidence from a US kindergarten cohort study. Child Abuse Negl. 132:105817.
image of toddler, lying with face pressed against cushion, by Bricolage / shutterstock
Content last modified 6/2024, by author Gwen Dewar