According to a University of New Hampshire study, children who are spanked are more likely to have an appetite for kinky less-than-savory sexual practices. So is the anti-spanking movement really about sexual conformity?
From PhysOrg:
New research by a University of New Hampshire domestic abuse expert says spanking children affects their sex lives as adults. Professor Murray Straus concludes that children who are spanked are more likely as adults to coerce partners to have sex, to have unprotected sex and to have masochistic sex.
Other studies have shown the link between spanking and physical violence, but Straus said his research is the first to show a link between corporal punishment and sexual behavior.
“My underlying motive was to bring this to the attention of parents and of more people,” Straus said, “in the hope it will help continue the decrease in the use of corporal punishment.”
Straus, co-director of UNH’s Family Research Laboratory, conducted a study in the mid-1990s in which he asked 207 students at three colleges whether they’d ever been aroused by masochistic sex. He also asked them if they’d been spanked as children. He found that students who were spanked were nearly twice as likely to like masochistic sex.
He has bundled that study with three new ones that explore the connections between corporal punishment, coerced sex and risky sex. He presented all four studies this week at the American Psychological Association’s Summit on Violence and Abuse in Relationships in Bethesda, Md.
Straus said his study found adults who were spanked as children are more likely to coerce their partners to have sex.
Straus asked 14,000 college students in 32 different countries whether they strongly disagreed, disagreed, agreed or strongly agreed with this statement: “I was spanked or hit a lot before age 12.” He also asked whether they had ever verbally or physically coerced an uninterested partner to have sex.
He found a big difference between students who said they’d been hit a lot before age 12 and those who said they hadn’t. For every increased step on Straus’s four-step scale of agreement, men were 10 percent more likely to have verbally coerced sex from a partner by insisting on sex or threatening to end the relationship if the partner refused. Women were 12 percent more likely to have done that.
Previous studies have shown that 90 percent of parents strike their toddlers, a statistic that’s held steady throughout the 30 years Straus has researched corporal punishment. Meanwhile, the number of parents who hit older children has drastically decreased. Straus said it’s unclear why, though he has some theories. One is that 2- and 3-year-olds are less likely to respond to repeated verbal warnings.
Straus said he would like more pediatricians and child-rearing experts to warn against spanking. He’d also like lawmakers to take a stand by dedicating state money to teaching parents about the dangers of corporal punishment.
“The best-kept secret in child psychology is that children who were never spanked are among the best behaved,” Straus said.
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“My underlying motive was to bring this to the attention of parents and of more people,” Straus said, “in the hope it will help continue the decrease in the use of corporal punishment.”
This is a massive red flag. I cannot believe he said this. He is admitting he had a desired outcome in mind (in order to influence parenting) and that this desired outcome was formed before he did the study.
This does not automatically invalidate his findings; perhaps his research his still good. But with a statement like this, someone needs to take his experimental design apart. Without scrutiny we cannot be sure that his biases towards a certain outcome did not influence his findings.
If 90% of the parents do something doen’t it become white noise? How does this statistic jive with the first question asked by Straus “I was spanked a lot before age 12”. Should’nt the truthful answer to that question be yes 90% of the time?
Given this 90% statistic, isn’t it likely that people who prefer masochistic sex today are more likely to have fantasies/memories of being beaten as a child?
Anon of 10:17 AM,
True enough. I also had the thought that correlation is not causation. People who were spanked as children may simply be more willing to ‘fess up to sexual practices frowned upon by society. Sex is one of the topics people are most inclined about which to dishonest.
“The best-kept secret in child psychology is that children who were never spanked are among the best behaved.” Um, maybe it’s because they are among the best behaved that they are never spanked?
Of course this is biased.
Good parenting produces well behaved kids, who don’t get spanked. The paddle becomes the resort of those with poor parenting skills.
Anyone know how to get in touch with the woman in the picture? She’s hot.
Russ DoGG,
Unfortunately, she’s a pro based in Ohio who goes as Lady Sage and managed to precipitate a bit of a scandal in Australia.
Moma destroyed my mojo years ago, I have no choice now except to push this vegetable up my fundament. Pathetic really.
Ivan
Sample size 207. College students. This makes econometric research look good. The only reason trash like this gets publicity is that it is salacious.
I could see this happening, especially if the punishment had sexual overtones, as they often do. If the child was forced to strip naked for the spanking, or was spanked on the genitals, it could definitely cause some sexual problems.
Susan