AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Whether you do it through time-outs, spankings or washing their mouths out with soap, there are a lot of ways to discipline your kids.
But a recent study shows if you spank, you could be hurting them in more than one way.
The study, published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that children who receive spankings could suffer long-term developmental damage and may even have a lower I.Q.
"When a child grows up with punishment, threats, violence, it's a different psychological makeup," said Chairperson for Amarillo College's Childhood and Education Department. "The stress, the fear can produce a hormone, a chemical that washes over you like adrenaline and that can damage the way the brain is developing," she added. "It can impact how your brain is functioning."
The study comes as the ethical debate over spanking continues, research suggesting those kids who receive them may have altered brain functions or may be more likely to suffer from depression or substance abuse.
Some parents agree that the way a person lives their life as an adult has a lot to do with the way they were raised and disciplined as a child.
"I never spanked my kids," said Amarillo local and father of five, Selden Hale. "It's demeaning. It's violence, it's using violence. By the way you treat people, you have an impact of how they live later on."
Hale suggested using other disciplinary measures such as taking away their phone, laptop, video games or not letting them watch TV to make kids behave better. Other parents, however, said time-outs just won't cut it. The only way to get them to listen is by getting a little physical.
"I think at the end of the day you have to do something to train your kids," said local citizen and father of five, Andy Roller. "I have to physically put my hand on him to get his attention sometimes," he said in reference to his 2-year-old son. "I can't just yell at him or talk to him. I have to put my hand on him, sometimes I have to swat his bottom."
"We firmly believe in spanking," agreed Amarillo mother of four, Jonna Parr. "It's never done out of anger, it's never done without measure and our children always understand why they're getting a consequence."
To spank or not to spank. Either way, the very definition of "a spanking" was just as much undecided as the actual debate itself.
"I think the general public population across the board, for humanity and the U.S., would most likely misuse spankings," said Parr.
"Getting a child's attention to teach them something is one thing," said Roller. "Punishing them is a completely separate thing."
