A L S O_ T O D A Y

To spank or not to spank
By Albert Mobilio
A husband from the working class squares off with his gently bred wife

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T A B L E_ T A L K

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BROWSE THE MOTHERS WHO THINK FEATURE ARCHIVES

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SPANKING: A BLACK MOTHER'S VIEW | PAGE 1, 2
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Recent studies suggest that all spanking is inappropriate -- that it's too often interpreted by the child as parental aggression, not loving correction. This is true especially if the child is older and more liable to resent parental authority. Dr. Murray A. Strauss, a sociologist at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, and the chief author of a recent spanking study, told the New York Times, "Society as a whole, not just children, could benefit from ending the system of violent child-rearing that goes under the euphemism of spanking." His study did note, however, that occasional spankings, when they were administered by parents who enjoyed an overall warm relationship to their children, caused no lasting harm.

Well, phew. My hard-headed second-grader still gets the odd smack on the butt now and again, but as he gets older, it's more effective if we shut off "Rugrats" or confiscate the Pocket Gameboy.

Curious, I queried my black friends with young children. "Do you spank -- and when?" The resounding reply: "Not much, but I do when I think it's necessary." The definitions of what's necessary might vary. Some spank when all other avenues -- lectures, timeouts, threats of taking away privileges -- fail. Others do it as a warning in specific circumstances: "If he's not listening, and he can hurt himself or others, I'd rather spank him than go to the emergency room," is the general gist. It seems as if they spend more time threatening to spank than actually spanking -- and they're vaguely guilty that they don't always carry out the threat. But these are parents in the middle to upper-middle class.

And class does make a difference, even though Strauss' study would indicate it doesn't. I live in an upper-middle-class neighborhood that is on the edge of the serious-business inner city -- the gilded ghetto, if you will. Like a lot of my neighbors who have committed to living here, we try to use the neighborhood services, which means I spend a lot of time standing in line at overcrowded banks and grocery stores, cruising in the local mall and hanging out at the nearby movie house. And there definitely is some spanking going on up in there, I can assure you. None of this "Shaunna, listen to Mommy or we're going to have to leave" business. More like "Shaunna! If I tell you again you're going to feel it, you hear me?" And Shaunna listens, too.

Like my classmate's husband, many working-class black folks were reared in highly authoritarian households where sparing the rod also indicated a kind of parental negligence: Giving you a little pain now was designed to spare you a whole lot of pain -- perhaps at the hands of someone else, who doesn't care about you the way your family does -- later.

A new study by Marjorie Linder Gunnoe, a developmental psychologist at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., has revealed something different from previous studies, which found that race and class do not affect the decision whether or not to spank. According to Gunnoe's study, which tracked 1,110 children from 4 to 11 years old over a five-year period, spanking may be divided along racial lines. Gunnoe found that spanking increased antisocial behavior (lying, cheating and bullying) among white boys, but was correlated with a decrease in aggression among black boys. Her explanation: Spanking is not only tolerated, but endorsed by the black community. The culture expects that adults will be seen, and treated as, authority figures.

That's in sync with my daily observations. We teach our children to address adults via an honorific "Mr." or "Ms." -- "Aunt" or "Uncle" if they're close family friends. We don't spend a lot of time arguing about the unfairness of hierarchy. And when it's warranted, many of us spank.

Santa Monica, Calif., psychiatrist Robert L. Ross questions the frequent Biblical rationale cited by many black traditionalists. "Does the rod that they're advocating not sparing refer to an actual stick, or to the measure of the parent's authority?" he wonders. "Maybe we took the most literal translation because it was the most expedient."

Has he ever spanked any of this three sons, I ask.

"Never have," he admitted.

Was he ever spanked as a child?

"Are you kidding?! To say I was spanked was putting it mildly!"

And he did not turn out to be a serial killer. The scientific evidence is, at this point, too inconclusive to recommend spanking. But real life often works differently than the controlled environments of studies, and I've found that in some specific situations, if you apply it like Brylcream -- a little dab'll do ya -- spanking works.
SALON | Oct. 7, 1998

Karen Grigsby Bates is a frequent contributor to Salon.

Do you spank? Discuss why or why not in the Mothers area of Table Talk.