Is Punishment an Effective Behavior Modification Strategy in Children?

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In conclusion, there appears to be much research that corporal punishment is not an effective behaviour management strategy for long term effects. There is evidence of immediate compliance from a child or even the threat of corporal punishment on behaviour. However, parents are effectively wanting to modify behaviour that has long term effects otherwise their parenting will constantly be filled with challenges from their children. Other issues to consider in this research area are cultural influences; societal and legal pressures to not use corporal punishment as this can lead to disapproval from within a community. Lastly, we need to consider some of the limitations in these studies. High on the list is how these findings are produced. Without observations from a third party, parents can bias any research if the data is based purely on their written or verbal data. Parents would be informed of the intention of the study and would not like to be perceived as being a bad parent using corporal punishment if that is what is being measured in the study. Also, further research in different cultures and attitudes would be welcomed to support current findings.

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