In the mid-90's there used to be interesting and passionate arguments about whether children should be spanked. Now there is more research in indicating it is not such a good idea:
Children mimic 'punitive' parents
Temper tied to parenting style
Study suggests change beneficial
LOUISE BROWN
EDUCATION REPORTER
The bad news is, parents who hit and threaten and yell at their kids really are more likely to have children who are aggressive, new research shows.
The good news is, it's never too late to change — when parents become less "punitive" as they raise their kids, the children turn out less aggressive.
The new study by Statistics Canada lends credence to what many have argued all along; that gentle, hands-on parenting will help produce gentle children and even override such risk factors for aggression as poverty, family dysfunction and a mother's depression.
"It's nice to have a study confirm what we've known all along; that parenting matters; that how we treat children makes a difference," said Alan Mirabelli, executive director of the Vanier Institute of the Family, an Ottawa research centre.
"These findings have implications for us all, especially as Canada and the provinces begin to develop a child care policy," Mirabelli said.
"What we do with children in those early years makes a difference."
As part of Canada's sweeping long-term National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, this report surveyed more than 4,100 children from across Canada and their parents, first in 1994-95 when the children were between 2 and 5 years old, and again eight years later in 2002-03, when the children ranged from 10 to 13.
Children whose parents took a "non-punitive" approach to parenting — less hitting, less yelling, fewer threats — when they were pre-schoolers turned out to be less aggressive as pre-teens, getting into fewer fights and bullying others less frequently.
Likewise, pre-schoolers whose parents were punitive were more likely to be aggressive eight years later.
These trends emerged whether families were rich or poor, whether the children were boys or girls, wherever they lived in Canada.
But what Mirabelli found encouraging was that when parents changed their style during those eight years — in either direction — their children showed a matching change in behaviour.
"Although we can't say this actually proves parenting style causes aggressive behaviour, it makes a pretty strong causal link and confirms what others have found," noted researcher Eleanor Thomas of Statistics Canada who wrote the report.
"These results show that punitive parenting has a far stronger link to childhood aggression than almost any other factor, including family income, family dysfunction and maternal depression."
Thomas said while low-income children are slightly more likely than their richer peers to become aggressive, gentle, hands-on parenting can reduce that risk.
The National Survey of Children and Youth is a long-term study by Social Development Canada and Statistics Canada, designed to collect information about factors influencing the social, emotional and behavioural development of children over time.
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