There is no need to smack children

On a rare occasion, I have administered a quick slap to a child who would not behave, but the last few anti-smacking years have made it clear there are better ways of setting boundaries, writes Cassandra Jardine.

Marjorie Gunnoe, a psychology professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has dealt a stinging blow to the anti-smacking lobby. Researching into 179 teenagers, she has found that smacking under the age of six is likely to make children more successful in their teens. The NSPCC, and others who have been campaigning for a total ban on smacking, may now be in for a spot of chastisement themselves.

This should be a great victory for freedom and common sense, as well as a cause for rejoicing among parents like myself who have been made to feel both guilty and fearful when we have, occasionally, lost control. As for those who go further and use smacking as a systematic punishment, Gunnoe’s findings are a glorious vindication, the perfect New Year’s present. But I felt no sense of triumph on reading this news, only gloom.

On those rare moments when, exhausted or exasperated, I administered a quick slap to a child who would not behave, I never imagined that I was going to scar the child for life, physically or psychologically. But neither did I imagine that either my smarting hand or the child’s shocked tears were going to make them more likely to do voluntary work in the future, or go to university – as the findings from this study at a Christian university suggest.

Despite Gunnoe’s research, I still don’t believe that it is the smacking of young children that has these good results. No doubt, some of the parents who have given up physical punishment have abandoned all attempts to set boundaries. As a result, their children may be more likely to go off the rails. It is likely, too, that some of those who smacked their young children were also fierce about bedtimes, good diet and homework.

But none of this means that smacking should once again be encouraged up until the age of six. We don’t know how these children will turn out when they have left their teens, and are no longer under parental control. They may well feel the need to leave their parents behind as fast as possible in order to escape their heavy hands. Underneath their glowing exam results may lurk deep-seated resentments.

What we do know, from this study and copious other research, is that the smacking of children over the age of six leads to anti-social behaviour. Parents who feel free to thump a young child may not find it easy to stop. With the encouragement that this research provides, more may feel free to start down that path and those already smacking their children may do so more often.

There should be no need for such tactics. The last few anti-smacking years have made it abundantly clear that there are other ways of setting boundaries. Smacking, as Gunnoe herself admits, remains “a dangerous tool.”