To Spank or Not to Spank

To the Editor.

The new discipline policy, “Guidance for Effective Discipline,”¹ of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is seriously flawed. Despite an excellent discussion of parental nurturance and positive reinforcement strategies, the policy statement is ill-founded and unrealistic in its account of corrective strategies, especially in its critique of disciplinary spanking.

To develop an unbiased, scientific analysis of the current research on corporal punishment, the AAP co-sponsored a consensus conference 3 years ago in which I participated. A 13-point consensus statement was drafted by the conference panel of experts. Concerning the use of corporal punishment by parents, the panel could not find sufficient data to proscribe the use of spanking with children between the ages of 24 months and preadolescence. A literature review presented at the conference actually found stronger evidence for beneficial than detrimental effects of spanking with 2- to 6-year-old children.² The co-chairs of the conference concluded, “Given a relatively ”healthy' family life in a supportive environment, spanking in and of itself is not detrimental to a child or predictive of later problems.”³

The new AAP discipline policy statement largely ignores the consensus conference statement and, instead, selectively plucks from the conference proceedings several allegations of the avowed spanking opponents, without acknowledging the presentations of other participants. Eleven of the 13 citations in the policy statement to support its unconditional antispanking position in the “supplemental information” section concern presentations of antispanking participants at the consensus conference, not original research.

To support its antispanking position, the policy relies on weak, nonfocused research and ignores solid data to the contrary. For example, the policy claims that spanking leads to aggression, though the best studies indicate a neutral to positive effect of spanking on childhood aggression.⁴ Two years ago, Gunnoe published a study finding that the …