Childhood Discipline and How it Affects Sexual Development

When I was a kid, I got spanked by my father only two times. The first time, I was about 7 years old and joking around with friends at school; I accidentally said “bitch” instead of beach and we all thought it was hilarious. I came home and started prancing around saying, “Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch” thinking I was just the cutest little thing…that is, until my dad took me across his knee and spanked me. The second time, I was a little bit older and talked back to my mother. She told me I couldn’t spend the night at a friend’s house because it was a school night and I asked her why not knowing my father was standing right behind me….big mistake. At the time, I was not a fan of spanking, but as I grew older, I respected my father for being such a great disciplinarian, despite what some childhood specialists say about never raising a hand to your child. Now, however, a new study is showing that spanking children may cause them to experience sexual problems when they grow into teenagers and adults.

This new research, led by Murray Straus of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire indicates that any type of corporal punishment experienced in childhood could increase an adult’s risk of risky sex (having sex without the use of contraceptives like condoms), masochistic sex (enjoying being spanked during sexual intercourse) and forced sex (either physically or verbally pushing for intercourse). Straus stated, “These results, together with the results of more than 100 other studies, suggest that spanking is one of the roots of relationship violence and mental health problems. Because there is 93 percent agreement between studies that investigated harmful side effects of spanking, and because over 90 percent of U.S. parents spank toddlers, the potential benefits for prevention of sexual and relationship violence is large.” He goes on to say that as a nation, “We can help prevent mental health problems and relationship violence from happening by a national health policy recommending never spanking.” I can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from the children of the nation.

The study showed that of the 14,000 college students surveyed in over 30 countries, almost 30% of men and 21% of women used verbal persuasion to get sex out of a partner. Less than 2% of both men and women surveyed used physical force to get sex. Researchers used a 4-step measure to determine that spanking caused significant hikes in both verbal and physical coerced sex (10% for verbal coercion by men and 12% by women; 33% for physical coercion by men and 27% by women). In terms of risky sex which is defined as having intercourse without the use of a condom, one-quarter of students who had spankings growing up admitted to engaging in unprotected sex. These findings caused Straus and his colleagues to hypothesize that spankings cause the bond to be less strong between parent and child; thus, the child as a teenager or adult will be more likely to engage in riskier sex. Straus concludes that the American Psychological Association should issue a recommendation to parents that corporal punishment should never be used as a form of discipline.