August 21, 2010
U. S. Senator Jim DeMint
Three particularly important studies have been released out of the University of North Carolina’s Injury Prevention Research Center.
The first, authored by Desmond Runyan, MD, DrPH, professor of social medicine at UNC, was published in the journal Pediatrics. Dr. Runyan’s study conducted surveys in Egypt, India, Chile, the Philippines, Brazil and the U.S. to track international variations in corporal punishment.
One of the study’s findings was that rates of child abuse reported in surveys were dramatically higher than official rates of abuse in all communities studied. The study also found, among other things, that mothers with less education had higher rates of corporal punishment and that rates of corporal punishment vary widely among different communities in the same country.
Two studies were led by Adam J. Zolotor, MD, MPH, assistant professor of family medicine in the UNC School of Medicine.
The first of those two tracked corporal punishment and physical abuse trends in American children aged 3 to 11 as reported in four separate surveys conducted from 1975 till 2002.
The study found that while 18 percent fewer children were hit in 2002 than 1975, the rates of physical punishment were still extremely high. Even in 2002 (after the decline), 79 percent of preschool children were spanked, and half of all preschool children were spanked with a paddle or other implement.
The second of Zolotor’s studies reviewed bans on corporal punishment by various nations and their impact. The study found that although 24 nations have banned corporal punishment of children, that is only 12 percent of the world’s countries. It also found that while all nations other than the United States and Somalia have signed onto the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (which ironically the United States helped draft), only a small number of those 193 member countries have outright banned corporal punishment. (See text of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.)
In the United States, amazingly, a group of 30 senators (!) have signed onto a bill, sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and currently pending in the Senate, opposing the signing of the UN Convention. Senator DeMint has labeled this a “Parents’ Rights” bill. In my experience, that term is regularly used in the United States to battle any implications that the hitting of one’s children might be limited.
In light of all the recent evidence of detriment caused by corporal punishment of children, including mental and physical health disorders, decreased IQ, aggression issues, problems with stress regulation, increase in disease risk for life, among numerous other, I ask – why would Americans fight so hard for this right?
Consider UNC’s Webcare Blog Entry, To Spank or Not to Spank . . ., Aug. 9, 2010. See also informative article in Science Daily, Corporal Punishment of Children Remains Common Worldwide, Studies Find, Aug. 9, 2010.