1

Corporal Punishment

Students Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course Name and Number

Instructors Name

Due Date
 2

Corporal Punishment

Alsarhi, K., Rahma, Prevoo, M. J., Alink, L. R., & Mesman, J. (2019). Maternal harsh physical

parenting and behavioral problems in children in religious families in

Yemen. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(9),

1485. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16091485

The study aimed to examine how maternal religiosity is one of the underlying factors in

the effects of harsh parenting on child behavioral problems. Alsarhi and colleagues (2019)

collected data through observation and questionnaires to examine the various involved parties.

Child behavioral approaches were discussed concerning religious beliefs, and they found that the

practice negatively contributed to the growth and development of the child. Some outdated

parenting approaches, examples of hitting and spanking, were found to negatively affect the

child's mental and emotional development (Alsarhi et al., 2019). The study suggested that the

outdated mannerisms of child upbringing and behavioral amendment contribute to self-esteem

deprivation and negative behavioral development. On the extreme, it may lead to adverse mental

health. These conditions affect a child's normal development where the child socially withdraws

from people and opting to kip to their own company since they are subjected to emotional trauma

(Alsarhi et al., 2019). Parents justify their actions by a religious reference where they cite their

religious beliefs contrary to what the government has implemented as social rights. In most

instances, the Islamic religion allows for corporal punishment where children and, on the

extreme, wives are canned or subjected to harsh treatments as a mechanism to amend their

behaviors. However, these practices are tyrannical and deemed to be abolished and disbanded

since they only traumatize the children.

Goodman, P. (2018, May 27). Arguments for and against the use of corporal punishment in schools.

Soapboxie - Politics. https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/Should-corporal-punishment-in-

schools-be-allowed-Arguments-for-and-against

Goodman developed this study aiming to examine the effects of corporal punishment in

schools. Corporal punishment in schools has been an emotive and contentious topic to different

people. Goodman suggested that the morals and feasibilities of applying force as a methodology

of upholding student’s discipline. The majority of people believe that corporal punishment is

effective in maintaining discipline in an education setting since it can be regulated. However, this

approach is unethical and ineffective in maintaining discipline since its negative impacts

outweigh the positive effects portrayed by the methodology (Goodman, 2018). Typically, most

people who support the practice of striking students and spanking tend to believe it works

efficiently because they believe that students will be cooperative by instilling fear. However, this

approach is filled with negativity. Rather than students learn why they should behave in a

particular manner, they tend to fear doing wrong due to the fear of punishment rather than

getting the discipline (Goodman, 2018). Despite the approach being easy to administer as a

discipline enforcer, its positive effects do not last long. Physical disciplining tends to fix

behavioral crookedness for the short term but may trigger a child to develop some psychological

harm and reckoning some aggressive behaviors. The aggressive behaviors contribute to moral

deterioration since a student will grow to uphold violence as a practicum of solving differences

or instilling good manners every step of the way.

Lenihan, T. (2018). From banning corporal punishment to the elimination of violence against

children – A global perspective. Corporal Punishment of Children, 21-

38. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004355972_003
 4

The study done by Lenihan aimed to outline the ultimate goal of disbanding physical

punishment and some other cruel children’s treatments that parents and teachers use to instill

discipline. These laws are dynamic since they not only point to the adults who use force or treat

children with cruelty but also focus on developing some attitudes that will help transform the

practice of physical punishment as an unacceptable vice that shall no longer prevail in

childrearing and educational settings. She justified her study by putting down some reasons that

pinpointed some adverse effects attributed to the corporal punishment methodology of

upbringing. She suggested that the practice of canning and spanking is applied with high levels

of discrimination, hence being unethical (Lenihan, 2018). She stated that not all children are

canned when they are found in undesired habits. For instance, when comparing the level of

caning between the boys and the girls, the boys are more canned when compared to the girls

(Lenihan, 2018). Similarly, children with disabilities were vulnerable to the threats of canning

and spanking, unlike their able counterparts. Therefore, this practice of disciplining was found to

be highly affected by high rates of discrimination hence being ineffective (Lenihan, 2018). Due

to these reasons, the government opted to impose some legal actions limiting parents and

teachers from enforcing the corporal punishment regime. The government termed the practice to

be illegal (Lenihan, 2018).

Lynn Soh. (2021). Child discipline: Physical punishment can leave psychological marks –

HealthXchange. HealthXchange.sg. https://www.healthxchange.sg/children/parenting-

tips/child-discipline-physical-punishment-psychological-marks

Lynn Soh developed the study to dim some light on the negatives associated with

corporal punishment, hence the need for it to be forgone as a methodology of instilling discipline

in any home setup. She suggested that children learn from their seniors since they are their role
 5

models. Therefore, they tend to pick and adopt all the disciplines they know and see their parents

and seniors do and have. Parents and teachers make an impression that it is tolerable to suggest

one thing or do something different using corporal punishment to have children obey

instructions. They have them adopt notions that it is right to make others comply with

instructions by the use of force. This notion should be held by contrary rule since it gives them a

message of negativity “the message sent to children through corporal punishment is one of

aggression” (Lynn Soh, 2021 Par 6). Such statements later develop within the children, where

they adopt mannerisms of negativity and ill-discipline. For instance, most of the nations in the

current world are at war since some children at their young ages were brought up in an

environment of conflict and negativity where they carried these behaviors to their adulthood.

Therefore, parents need to abolish physical punishment since it instills physical marks in children

that extend to their adulthood life (Lynn Soh, 2021).

Ngussa, B. M., & Mdalingwa, S. (2017). Students’ Perception on corporal punishment and its

effects on learning: A case of secondary schools in Babati Rural District,

Tanzania. Mediterranean Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences (MJBAS), 1(1), 84-93.

The study aimed to establish students’ perception of corporal punishment and its effects

on learning among secondary school students in rural areas. According to Ngussa and

Mdalingwa (2017), “punishment is an issue of great concern among school stakeholders. It is

believed to be a mechanism by which unwanted behaviors are eradicated, and the acceptable

ones get encouraged and upheld,” (p. 90). Using canes and physical punishment to discipline

children has been sourced as a negative practice of disciplining, where they preferred a substitute

form of discipline rather than corporal punishment. The use of canes has been a rampant

disciplining methodology in traditional African society. Ngussa and Mdalingwa (2017) cited the
 6

practice as an outdated disciplining habit due to the many adverse effects associated with the

practice. Per their suggestions, the practice with social withdrawing from the public since most

students view the practice of caning as physical punishment and dehumanization before their

fellow counterparts. This significantly affects their academic performance since the students

withdraw from their peers and counselors, neglecting counsel and guidance. This makes their

academic life miserable due to their poor performance. The methodology is also unreliable since

it incites students to withdraw from academic trails as a mechanism to avoid punishment since

the punishments are also done with a degree of discrimination (Ngussa and Mdalingwa, 2017).

Cuartas, J., Weissman, D. G., Sheridan, M. A., Lengua, L., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2021).

Corporal punishment and elevated neural response to threat in children. Child

Development, 92(3), 821-832. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13565

This study was done aiming to examine the evidence linking corporal punishment to

detrimental growth in children. Their research inspected if the children who were caned

exhibited deformed or affected neural functionality responding to a stimulus that suggested the

occurrence of an environmental risk related to children who were not caned or subjected to

environmental hazards. Cuartas and colleagues (2021) indicated that corporal punishment is the

application of corporal force that causes a child to feel agony or discomfort example of spanking.

They regarded these practices of corporal punishment as socially unacceptable but legally

acceptable in over 130 countries. According to their survey, about half of the parents in United

States reported spanking their children in the past year to correct errors. However, despite the use

of spanking in instilling discipline in children, the practice has been described and attributed to

deleterious child outcomes. They closely linked spanking with poor intellectual growth and other

maladaptive results in a child's life (Cuartas et al., 2021). The dimensional approach of adversity
 7

suggested that exposure to experiences that revolved around impairment or risk of harm to

children such as sexual abuse, seeing domestic viciousness, and being subject to community

viciousness will pose analogous stimuluses on emotive and neural growth that surface with

respect to threat experienced. These events threaten students' physical development and physical

growth.

Long, S. (2018). Negative consequences of corporal punishment of children are

unequivocal. The JOURNAL of PEDIATRICS, 194, 233 and

253. https://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(18)30002-7/pdf

Long did the study to examine the effects of corporal punishment on children in their

future lives. Corporal punishment in the actual and natural setting surfaces as a hostile and

tyrannical methodology of disciplining since its effects are adverse. When children are punished

by way of canning, spanking and physical torture, some develop some adverse mannerisms in

their behavioral aspects, such as ruthless aggression that transpires even in their future life. Some

of these behaviors are coupled with high levels of negativity where they affect the ways people

live and the nature of relationships people hold amongst them (Long, 2018). For instance, some

couples that are seen fighting within the societies every day may have adopted those behaviors of

negativity right from a young age. Some might have been subject to severe corporal punishment

by their parents, where they were disciplined through caning and other forms of physical

punishment. Research by Long (2018) suggests that severe punishment inflicted on children at a

young age makes some people aggressive and volatile in their later stages of life. They choose to

resolve their issues by way of war and violence rather than a consensus of peace. Furthermore,

their minds were introduced to violence at a tender age as the only applicable methodology of

resolving conflicts and instilling discipline (Long, 2018).

Mehlhausen-Hassoen, D. (2019). Gender-specific differences in corporal punishment and

children’s perceptions of their mothers’ and fathers’ parenting. Journal of Interpersonal

Violence, 36(15-16), NP8176-NP8199. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519842172

The study examines the gender variations in parenting, corporal punishment, and

children’s perception of the applied parenting procedure. Mehlhausen-Hassoen (2019) suggested

that corporal punishment is a prevalent spectacle and a regular abnormality of parenting. Gender

has been viewed as a primary consideration in social orders and family structure. The parents’

behaviors are understood to have a different effect on the children’s perception about the parents’

behaviors (Mehlhausen-Hassoen, 2019). For instance, parent-to-child physical violence

negatively affects the perception a child will hold regarding a certain parent. The study also

examined the relationship between gender interactions, influences of corporal punishment, and

childhood responses. According to the survey, fewer daughters were affected by corporal

punishment when compared to the boy child from both parents. Corporal punishment had a

substantial effect on the apparent parent-to-child-child connection (Mehlhausen-Hassoen, 2019).

This analysis suggests that boys are more vulnerable to corporal punishment hence adversely

affecting the nature of the relationship between the child and the parents. Violent parental

behavior posed a negative significant more substantial effect where the father-son relationship is

more affected even when the mother was involved in the violent parenting. Therefore, both

parents are deemed to assume collective responsibility while attesting to their children’s

behaviors (Mehlhausen-Hassoen, 2019).

References

Alsarhi, K., Rahma, Prevoo, M. J., Alink, L. R., & Mesman, J. (2019). Maternal harsh physical

parenting and behavioral problems in children in religious families in

Yemen. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(9),

1485. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16091485

Cuartas, J., Weissman, D. G., Sheridan, M. A., Lengua, L., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2021).

Corporal punishment and elevated neural response to threat in children. Child

Development, 92(3), 821-832. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13565

Goodman, P. (2018, May 27). Arguments for and against the use of corporal punishment in schools.

Soapboxie - Politics. https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/Should-corporal-punishment-in-

schools-be-allowed-Arguments-for-and-against

Lenihan, T. (2018). From banning corporal punishment to the elimination of violence against

children – A global perspective. Corporal Punishment of Children, 21-

38. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004355972_003

Long, S. (2018). Negative consequences of corporal punishment of children are

unequivocal. The JOURNAL of PEDIATRICS, 194, 233 and

253. https://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(18)30002-7/pdf

Lynn Soh. (2021). Child discipline: Physical punishment can leave psychological marks –

HealthXchange. HealthXchange.sg. https://www.healthxchange.sg/children/parenting-

tips/child-discipline-physical-punishment-psychological-marks
 10

Mehlhausen-Hassoen, D. (2019). Gender-specific differences in corporal punishment and

children’s perceptions of their mothers’ and fathers’ parenting. Journal of Interpersonal

Violence, 36(15-16), NP8176-NP8199. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519842172

Ngussa, B. M., & Mdalingwa, S. (2017). Students’ Perception on corporal punishment and its

effects on learning: A case of secondary schools in Babati Rural District,

Tanzania. Mediterranean Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences (MJBAS), 1(1), 84-93.