Why is smacking wrong

But Ray's daughter is now an adult with a child of her own, and he says much to his dismay she smacks her kids. She knew the reasons I didn't but that's her choice," he said. You can't say too much. A report by UNICEF found that worldwide 80 per cent of children are smacked or otherwise physically punished by their parents. Smacking is also one of the most examined aspects of parenting, with hundreds of studies seeking to determine if there's a connection between physical punishment and the emotional and behavioural effect on kids.

A meta-analysis of these studies — completed in by the American Psychological Association — found "there is no evidence that spanking does any good for children and all evidence points to the risk of it doing harm".

Still, it is legal for parents and guardians to physically punish children in Australia , says Patrick Lenta, an associate Professor in the Law Faculty at University of Technology Sydney.

Yet the Australia Talks data also shows the practice is going out of favour, with those agreeing it is acceptable consistently dropping off as the age bracket rises. This comes as some comfort to Ray, whose anti-smacking stance makes him an outlier in his age bracket, and he suggests younger generations are "more informed or socially more relaxed, because my generation in life was fairly intense.

Still, ABC readers have shared their own views on the issue and reveal there remains a broad range of deeply held opinions on the topic. It didn't do me any harm," Kathy said. There is a massive misguided sense of entitlement in today's little darlings," Gary said.

I became quite angry and resentful that someone could punish a child so harshly for doing what kids do," Sue said. So no, it's not an acceptable form of discipline," Akira said.

The Australia Talks National Survey asked 54, Australians about their lives and what keeps them up at night. Use our interactive tool to see the results and how Australians' answers compare with yours — available in English, simplified Chinese, Arabic and Vietnamese. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.

Our children can push our buttons like nobody else in the world, for a whole host of reasons. Responding to a child when they are having a meltdown, not listening or being openly defiant, is much more about parents learning how to regulate their own emotions and behaviour, to be able to stay calm, than it is about what the child is actually doing in the moment.

Children smacked in childhood are much more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, drug use and resort to aggression as they get older.

They have less capacity for empathy or the ability to develop their own sense of right and wrong. Extensive brain research shows that children who are smacked have less grey matter in their pre frontal cortex which is the part of the brain that controls executive functioning skills, whilst their amygdalae have greater fear response and are more hyper-vigilant. They are also at increased risk of being bullied or victimised and ultimately ending up in abusive relationships as adults.

The debate is over. Science has proven the results of smacking your kids Some parents are not going to like this. Alys Gagnon December 04, Is smacking your child OK? Spanking does the opposite of what parents want it to The mammoth research, published in the Journal of Family Psychology , concluded that hitting children for bad behaviour has similar effects to physical abuse. Editors' Picks. We collect information about the content including ads you use across this site and use it to make both advertising and content more relevant to you on our network and other sites.

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