Slapping children is never okay, but some people continue to view it as an acceptable way to ‘discipline’ their children, despite the fact that it was banned in 2015.
A new study has stressed that the act can have a drastic impact on children’s futures.
Professor Alf Nicholson from Temple Street Hospital shared his findings in the Irish Medical Journal.
He explained that children who are slapped are more likely to be aggressive and antisocial when they grow up.
He also found that slapping children causes major problems for them later in life, including drug use, suicide attempts and heavy drinking.
Another study found that smacking children has a negative affect on their mental health, especially in their adult lives.
The aim of the study was to explore the long-lasting impact of smacking on a child’s mental health and development, and the alarming results were published in the Journal of Family Psychology.
A team of researchers at both the University of Texas and the University of Michigan studied 50 years’ worth of research, containing the data of over 160,000 children, as part of the study.
In it, the team found that the smacking of children by their parents led to the following outcomes in adulthood:
- Increased aggression
- Increased anti-social behaviour
- More externalising of problems
- More internalising of problems
- More mental health problems
- More negative relationships with parents
- Lower moral internalisation
- Lower cognitive ability
- Lower self-esteem
Parents are being urged to think of the long-term, negative ramifications of smacking their children.
