Spanked Children Are More Likely to Have Sexual Problems as Teens or Adults, Study Says

Sciencedaily reports that children who are spanked or are faced with other forms of corporal punishment are more likely to experience sexual problems as a teenager or adult, according to new research presented by Murray Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of Hampshire.

After research and studies being made into this the results showed that children who were spanked or suffered other forms of corporal punishment by their parents had a higher risk of three sexual problems as they reached teens or adults.

The three sexual problems in question are:

Verbally and physically coercing a partner to have sex
Risky sex - this included sex without a condom and sex before marriage
Masochistic sex

Murray Straus says ''These results, together with the results of more than 100 other studies, suggest that spanking is one of the roots of relationship violence and mental health problems. Because there is 93 percent agreement between studies that investigated harmful side effects of spanking, and because over 90 percent of U.S. parents spank toddlers, the potential benefits for prevention of sexual and relationship violence is large''

The further research undertaken by Straus also claimed that spanking children was actually not as effective as other forms of discipline methods and therefore children do not need to be exposed to spanking and the harmful effects that comes with it. The outcome is that Straus wants to implement and reduce corporal punishment and set a national health policy that recommends never spanking children. This in turn can prevent mental health problems and relationship violence from happening.

So if spanking children is as negative to their health as claimed what other methods of discipline are effective, well here are a few:

Time outs - Giving children short time-out periods helps to calm the situation and the child. Ideally give the child an amount of time equal to that of their age, this can be implemented with a 'naughty step' and will give the child a chance to reflect and learn that mis-behaving is not tolerated and attention will not be given to it.

Talking to children - Often in moments when our children are mis-behaving emotions are chaos and we forget that talking with children can also be an effective discipline method. Ask them questions as to why they 'hit' another child for example and communicate how wrong it is, try to understand their feelings and why they acting that way.

Using consequences - Letting children experience the consequence of their behavior is an effective discipline method. For example a child throwing their toys around the house, will then lose those toys either permanently or for a certain time period. Parents should tell the child before it happens, the consequence for breaking the rule or the bad behavior. Always give a reason to the consequence such as 'if you throw your toys around the room, you will break them, toys cost money etc etc'. Remember if after the consequence has been given and the child chooses to continue it is important that the parent does take away the toys and a valuable lesson be learned all round!