Is Spanking Ever Right? Pediatricians Say No
Is it ever good to spank your children—or shame or humiliate them—to try and correct their behavior? The new answer from the American Academy of Pediatrics is an unequivocal “no.”
In a policy statement co-written by Robert Sege, a professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Tufts School of Medicine, the pediatricians group updated its recommendation from some twenty years ago, and spells out the reasons why using positive behavioral approaches is not only the ethical approach, but the only effective way to discipline children.
Sege, a pediatrician whose research focuses on how child abuse and neglect can be prevented, has long been interested in these policy issues and was tapped, along with Benjamin Siegel from Boston University, by the Academy to rewrite its guidance on corporal punishment of children.
“I think that once you get through all the science and all of the data, the realization that you come to is that there is simply no need to inject fear and violence into the most important loving relationship that any of us ever have—the relationship between parents and children,” Sege said.
The good news is that the younger generation of parents across America seem to know that and are opposed to spanking children.
Tufts Now reached out to Sege to learn more about the background for the policy, reaction to it, and advice on positive approaches to disciplining children.