Americans’ Opinions On Spanking Vary By Party, Race, Region And Religion

[JonLP24]

The arrest of Minnesota Vikings halfback Adrian Peterson, who is accused of abusing his 4-year-old son while disciplining him with a switch, has rekindled the long-running debate about corporal punishment. There haven’t been any public opinion surveys that have asked specifically about the Peterson case. Nor has there been consistent polling of American attitudes on the use of switches. But polls consistently show most Americans believe spanking is an appropriate form of discipline, although it varies by party identification, race, region and religion.

Since 1986, the University of Chicago‘s General Social Survey (GSS) has asked respondents, “Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree that it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good, hard spanking?” (For this article, I have merged the responses “strongly agree” and “agree,” as well as “strongly disagree” with “disagree.” I have also eliminated the responses in which people said they were unsure, though only 1.5 percent in the sample gave this answer).

<snip>

(support dropped from 86% in 1986 to 70% in 2012)

That drop, however, isn’t because younger people are more likely to be anti-spanking. Since 1986, there hasn’t been much of a difference in the opinions of different age groups in any given year, according to the GSS. The few spikes and valleys in the data are more indicative of sampling error than anything else.

There is a large gap when it comes to religion. The subsample on religion has been included in the GSS only occasionally, yet there is a clear divergence. Born-again Christians are, on average, 15 percentage points more likely than the rest of the population to agree that spanking is an acceptable form of punishment.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/americans-opinions-on-spanking-vary-by-party-race-region-and-religion/

[HERVEPA]

1. Depressing that it's so hih in all these categories

I would have liked to see by education, and by religion. I'm guessing Jewish would be about 20% or lower.

[tularetom]

2. In my mind it isn't a very big step from whipping your kid with a tree branch

to slugging your girlfriend in an elevator.

I don't give a flying fuck what the buybull says. If it's wrong to strike in anger at someone who is smaller and weaker than you are, it's wrong.

My mom (and dad too when he was home) used to swat me on the ass with a wooden spoon. They didn't do it out of any altruistic desire to set me on the straight and narrow, they did it because they were angry and frustrated that I didn't do something they told me to do, or did something they told me not to do. In other words they were pissed that I had dissed them and they took it out on me in revenge.

It didn't happen frequently but often enough so that I could see it coming. I knew when they were pissed and I learned not to give them the satisfaction of a reaction. So I just stood there and took it, no matter how much it stung. When they saw that I wasn't going to scream, cry, apologize or beg them to stop, they figured out that it wasn't an effective method of punishment for me.

As a parent I saw the thing from the opposite viewpoint and I had to fight really hard to refrain from lashing out at my kids in anger, particularly the boy. But I held back because I knew if I resorted to swatting him, he had won. Yes I spanked them, generally to keep them from running out in the road or something else that may have been dangerous.

If you're a parent, you ought to be smarter than your kids. Beating them just lowers you to their emotional level.

[Dont call me Shirley]

3. Spanking does no good. People who think it does are truly stupid.

[elias7]

14. Maybe uninformed is a better characterization

Remember when they thought McDonalds was bad for you? How stupid they were.

[Dont call me Shirley]

17. How about willfully ignorant?

[DBoon]

4. You never train a dog by hitting it

Punishing a dog by hitting it only makes it fear your raised hand.

If this is too cruel and ineffective to train a puppy, why do people think beatings are appropriate for training a child?

[pipoman]

5. No, not a

"a good, hard spanking?” maybe a swat on the butt to get ones attention. I grew up on spankings, never spanked my kids beyond getting their attention.

[hifiguy]

18. A halfhearted swat on a clothed butt is the worst

I ever got growing up and it only happened a few times. Usually after I did something really dumb.

[TBF]

6. Rec for visibility -

also very depressing that it is so high. You'd think folks would be smarter and more compassionate but they're not. I really hate this country sometimes.

[Laffy Kat]

7. If you did it to an adult it would be assault.

Why do some people think it's ok to assault a child? If I live to be 100 I won't understand the logic there.

[FiveGoodMen]

19. Because it's mild in comparison to what they were taught in church

"God said to Abraham, 'Kill me a son...'"

[OutNow]

8. Well, at least I'm in the proper demographic

Democrat - West - White - Not Born Again

I have never struck a child and never will. I was smacked around a lot as a kid and felt it was so unfair to hit someone (in that case ME) that was unable to fight back.

[DrDan]

9. what caused that 10% jump (80%-to-90%) in 2 years among AA's?

nothing comes to my mind as to what could have created an increase of that significance.

[JonLP24]

11. He says the spikes and valleys

are more indicative of sampling error more than anything else really.

[DrDan]

12. I saw his note re sample size - but it still seems significant

[kiva]

15. No, he says that:

And though the smaller sample size makes it irresponsible to chart by year, non-whites and non-blacks (e.g. Asians, Native Americans, etc.) are, on average, 5 percentage points less likely than whites to approve of spanking.

So he apparently feels the percentages for whites and blacks is accurate, which does beg the question about why there would be such a dramatic rise in the early 2000s among blacks - though thankfully it did drop back down again.

[Duppers]

10. graphs

?w=1108&h=862


?w=1108&h=862

[Stellar]

13. I'm glad those days are over...beating kids....

because I know I got my share. Listen to Richard Pryor talking about it. I wish that the person could have showed the ending of it where his grandmother would give him ice cream after his whippings and telling him she was sorry for doing it. Because the next time he did something bad, he would get the same thing all over again. Richard said he would be good for 9 months after that.

Did you hear the people in the audience acknowledge getting those kinds of whippings?

[LiberalEsto]

16. I suspect location also matters

New Jersey outlawed corporal punishment in schools in the late 1800s, ar least a century before any other state did the same.

When we moved to Maryland from NJ 24 years ago, I was shocked to learned that kids could still be paddled in school. People told me it was rarely done, but it was several more years before it was finally prohibited here. And Maryland is a fairly progressive state.

To me, having grown up in New Jersey where such a thing was unthinkable, it was startling to realize that hitting kids in school was legally permissible in most of the rest of the country a quarter-century ago.

[Jamaal510]

20. That chart that

showed a majority of Democrats saying that spanking is acceptable is yet another case of DU not reflecting the Democratic Party as a whole.
There's a distinct difference between scar (and blood)-inducing beatings, and a swat on the butt, legs, hands, etc. to change behavior. If a small child is doing something unsafe, and either refuses or is too young to listen to reason, there is not much of an alternative form of punishment that typically works. But then again, what do I know? I'm apparently just "uninformed" and "ignorant" for having a different opinion on this versus many of the posters on this site.

[JonLP24]

21. The trends are moving in the right indirection

As what happens when information and understanding become available.

Where do you draw the line?

The hardest spanking, abuse, etc I ever received was from my born again "The Door" church going uncle who only used his hand but left bruises. I don't remember what I did wrong though.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. When a woman in one of my Psych classes asked, "How much should I spank my child?"

The prof answered, "Until YOU feel better."

She didn't get it...at first.