RE: CHILDREN SPARED SPANKING HAVE HIGHER IQs, STUDY SAYS
Erin Stewart
I am writing to strongly caution anyone against making hasty decisions about spanking as a result of reading an article about a single study. The important word to note in Straus' study is: correlation. I could probably find a correlation between drinking grape juice and having a low IQ if I really wanted to. We have to remember to read studies, methods and samples carefully.
Now, I have not read Straus' study, but I certainly intend to - cover to cover - before I make a call on its validity. However, I still have a few personal reactions to the attitudes his study is proposing:
Firstly, as a Masters University student, I hope it would be fair to claim that I am of 'normal' intelligence. But I was spanked as a child. In fact, I was quite the little sass-pot, so I was spanked quite frequently as a child. Regardless of these spankings, for as long as I can remember, I've gotten above average grades in school. It appears that my mental development has not been 'stunted' by spanking in any way.
The attitude that spanking is bad is a recent phenomenon. Many schoolmates of mine were spanked as children and I would be willing to bet that a significantly higher number of children in my parents' generation were spanked, sometimes even more harshly than what we now deem as socially acceptable. Is Straus claiming that the entirety of generations before have 'lower' IQs because of mental delays as a result of the spankings they received? I certainly hope not.
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I also have a problem with the fact that a study about spanking, which, by the way, has been deemed appropriate and upheld as such at the highest level of court in Canada, is being published in The Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma. The very journal it's published in suggests that spanking is some form of child maltreatment that will cause trauma. Let's just be clear, child abuse is illegal in Canada; spanking and child abuse are not the same thing.
Erin Stewart
Brantford, ON
