Friday, 25th September, 2009
According to discipline and domestic violence expert Murray Straus, spanking children costs them IQ points.
Spanking is causing brain damage?? What are these parents doing? Hitting the kid over the head with a skillet?
FRIDAY, Sept. 25 (HealthDay News) — The bad news is that youngsters who are spanked might lose IQ points.
The good news is that it appears that children’s IQs are on the rise — and at least one expert believes that part of the reason why is that corporal punishment is falling out of favor in the United States and elsewhere.
That’s the view of discipline and domestic violence expert Murray Straus, a professor of sociology and co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire. Straus was scheduled to present the findings from recent research on spanking on Friday at the International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Trauma in San Diego.
The results of a survey of more than 17,000 university students from 32 countries “show that the higher the percent of parents who used corporal punishment, the lower the national average IQ,” Straus wrote in his presentation.
“How often parents spanked made a difference,” Straus said in a news release from the university. “The more spanking, the slower the development of the child’s mental ability. But even small amounts of spanking made a difference.”
I find it difficult to believe that any subject is this black and white.
I have not read the professor’s presentation, but considering his field of expertise and the group he presented to (the violence conference), it’s obvious that he has an axe to grind, and an opinion to justify.
What other factors were taken in to account?
-Education of the parents?
-Availability of good teachers/schools?
-Overall socioeconomic conditions?
-Ability to provide extra study materials?
-Etc.
There is a phrase that goes: Lies, Damn lies and statistics.
Anyone who has ever taken a statistics class will tell you that you can make statistics say anything you want them to say.