Originally published 2021-04-19.
Does spanking affect a child's brain? A 2021 study from Harvard University suggests it may. Researchers scanned the brains of children aged roughly 10 to 12 while they looked at pictures of frightened faces. Kids who were smacked as discipline, with no history of more serious violence, showed heightened activity in brain areas that detect threats. Their pattern was similar to that of children who had suffered severe abuse. The findings add brain-imaging evidence to decades of research linking physical punishment with poorer outcomes for children.
What the Harvard study found
The study, led by Jorge Cuartas with senior author Katie A. McLaughlin of Harvard's Department of Psychology and colleagues at Harvard, the University of North Carolina and the University of Washington, was published in the journal Child Development in 2021 under the title “Corporal Punishment and Elevated Neural Response to Threat in Children.” McLaughlin directs Harvard's Stress and Development Lab, and Cuartas was the first author.
The main analysis covered 147 children, average age about 11 and a half, drawn from a larger long-running study that had followed them since early childhood. Forty had been spanked and 107 had never been spanked. Children who had been physically or sexually abused were excluded from these two groups, so that the spanking group reflected ordinary physical punishment rather than abuse. A separate group of 26 abused children was used for comparison.
Spanked children showed stronger responses to fearful faces, compared with neutral ones, in several regions of the prefrontal cortex, including the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the dorsal anterior cingulate and the frontal pole. Some of these areas belong to the salience network, a set of regions that flags potentially important signals in the environment, such as signs of danger. Interestingly, the amygdala, often described as the brain's alarm centre, did not respond differently.
The most striking result came from comparing spanked children with the abused group. The researchers found no brain region where the response to fearful faces differed between the two. They cautioned that the abused group was small, so this result needs confirming in larger studies.
How the experiment worked
Each child lay in an MRI scanner and watched a series of photos of actors' faces, some showing fear and some with a neutral expression. Functional MRI tracks changes in blood flow, which indicate which parts of the brain are working harder at a given moment.
A fearful face is a useful test because it is a social cue that danger may be nearby. A brain that has learned to expect threat at home may become more sensitive to such cues. Over time, that kind of heightened vigilance has been linked in other research to anxiety and difficulty regulating emotions.
McLaughlin summed up the result by saying that, from the point of view of a child's brain, the difference between spanking and abuse "is more a difference of degree than of type."
What the findings do and do not show
It is important not to overstate a single study. The results show an association between being spanked and a particular pattern of brain response at one point in time. They do not prove that spanking caused permanent damage, and they do not mean that every spanked child will develop problems. The researchers did not test for lifelong harm.
The study also measured group averages. Individual children vary widely, and many factors, such as warmth at home, stress, poverty and support from other adults, shape how a child develops. Cuartas himself stressed that children can be resilient and that corporal punishment does not affect every child in the same way.
The authors described their work as a first step that needs follow-up across larger and more diverse groups. Even so, it fits a consistent picture from behavioural research, and it gives that picture a biological dimension.
What earlier research says about spanking
This is not an isolated finding. Large reviews of studies from many countries, including a widely cited 2016 analysis by Elizabeth Gershoff and Andrew Grogan-Kaylor covering more than 160,000 children, have linked spanking with more aggression, more antisocial behaviour, more mental health problems and poorer relationships with parents. These studies also find that spanking does not make children more obedient in the long run.
Corporal punishment has been tied to higher rates of anxiety, depression, behaviour problems and later substance use. Children who are spanked are also at greater risk of experiencing more serious physical abuse, because punishment can escalate.
Spanking remains common. Recent surveys in the United States suggest that around half of parents have spanked a child in the past year, and about a third in the past week, according to figures cited by the Harvard researchers.
Myths about spanking
"It never did me any harm"
Many adults who were spanked feel they turned out fine, and many did. Research looks at averages across thousands of people, and those averages show higher risks, even if many individuals are unaffected.
"It is the only thing that works"
Spanking may stop behaviour in the moment, but studies show it does not teach children why something is wrong or what to do instead. Over time it tends to be linked with more misbehaviour, not less.
"A light smack is different from abuse"
Legally and morally the two are different. The Harvard study suggests that, at the level of how the brain reacts to threat, the gap may be smaller than many parents assume.
Positive alternatives for parents
Child development experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, advise against all physical punishment and encourage approaches that teach rather than hurt. Some practical options:
- Set clear, consistent rules and explain them in simple words a child can repeat back.
- Praise the behaviour you want to see, specifically and often.
- Use calm consequences such as losing a privilege or a short break to cool down.
- Take a pause yourself when angry; stepping away for a minute prevents reactions you may regret.
- Ask for help. Parenting classes, family doctors and child psychologists can offer strategies that suit your child.
More than 60 countries have now banned corporal punishment in all settings, including the home, starting with Sweden in 1979. The Harvard researchers urged families and lawmakers to treat spanking as a risk worth reducing, even while the science continues. If you are worried about a child's behaviour or wellbeing, talk to a doctor or a qualified child specialist.
Sources: Harvard Gazette (April 2021): Spanking children may impair their brain development; Cuartas, Weissman, Sheridan, Lengua and McLaughlin, Child Development (2021): Corporal punishment and elevated neural response to threat in children; original reporting via Upworthy.
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