The Agreement over Spanking Children as Punishment by

Household and Race

Jonathan Benavides
The concept of spanking children as punishment is nothing new, but seems to be
more taboo as civilization rolls on. I believe that, restrictions aside, spanking is frowned
upon by most people; single adults and families, yet most would agree that spanking,
when done to a proper level, would be favorable as opposed to not spanking the child
and punishing by some other means. One would say arguably that a child who was
punished with spanking would grow up to be a more respectable, humbling figure. One
could also argue that spanking, if say, done improperly, could have mental repercussions
that may affect them in adulthood in a negative manner. More specifically pertaining to
the data I've gathered, I looked at the types of households that would each have their
degree of agreements as well as racial backgrounds as a possible factor in determining
whether or not spanking is an agreeable point. My question that leads into the statistics
is that if asked, regardless of intent, would adults of various household types agree to
favoring spanking a child as punishment as opposed to not spanking? Also, would the
factor of race, both with and without children, skew the view of spanking across the
board?
The method's I approached when looking at the data was to get three variables;
Spanking, Household Type, and Race. I used the data found from the 1970's up to 2014
and compiled three different graphs, each comparing one to another, in order to find a
consistent pattern, or rather an inconsistency in favor of my hypothesis.
The first graph presented presented Spanking by Household Type. The survey
offered the answers of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree- in
regards to favoring spanking. The Strongly agree average was 28% compared to the
lowest percent of 22% and the highest being 36%. There's a 14% gap (22% to 36%) with
the average (28%) being 1% lower than the average of 22% and 32% (29%). The agree
average was 47.17%, while the lowest percent was 44% and the highest being 54%.
That's a 10% difference between 44% and 54%, with the average (47.17%) being
approximately 2% lower than the average of 44% and 54% (49%). The total average of
general agreement was 75.17%, whereas the general disagreement average was 25.08%.
Almost of the adults were in agreement to spanking children as a form of punishment,
as opposed to the other slightly larger that is made up of Strongly agree, Disagree, and
Strongly disagree. Speaking in terms of total general agreement, that is of adults that
generally agreed to spanking children as a form of punishment. Out of the total number
of people surveyed, 65% of the surveyors were without children, while the ones with
children were 35%.
The second graph presented Race and Spanking. The survey asked about spanking

and again, offered four main answers of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly
Disagree. Strongly Agree Average was 28.6%, with the lowest percent being 22% and
the highest being 41% (19% difference). The Agree Average was 45.4%, with the lowest
percent being 42% and the highest being 48% (6% difference). The Disagree Average
was 19% with the lowest percent being 11% and the highest being 25% (14%
difference). Strongly Disagree Average was 7% with the lowest being 3% and the
highest being 11% (8% difference). The General Agreement Average was still
approximately of the surveyed people while the other of the surveyors chose to
Disagree or Strongly Disagree.
The third graph presented Race and Household Type. Five races were considered;
White, Black, American Indian, Asiatic/Oriental, and Other/Mix. The household type
presented twelve different households ranging from single adult to married couples, each
considering with and without children. Married couples with children was 28%, the
lowest being 18% (Black) and the highest being 35% (Asiatic/Oriental) that's a 17%
difference. With Married couples no children, the average was 23.6%, with the lowest
being 16% (Black) and the highest being 31% (White) that's a 15% difference. The third
highest was Single adult, assuming no children, with 21.4% average, the lowest being
18% (Other/Mix) and the highest being 27% (Black) that's a 9% difference. The
remaining surveyors all peaked at 8.6% or less, down to 0%. The Average of surveyors
without children is 56%, while surveyors with children is 44% so from this I see that the
split of having children to no children is slightly askew from down the middle.
After viewing and considering the aspects given on the results, I've come to find
that indeed adults agree to favoring spanking a child as punishment (approximately
75%) but by reviewing graph 1, statistically out of the total amount of surveyors was
65% that did not have children, while graph 3 showed that the surveyors without
children was 56%. This leads me to believe that the notion of spanking is strong with
adults, but with the slight majority of surveyors representing themselves without
children, it is hard to say at this point if the numbers would change if the said surveyors
became guardians of children. I do not see race as a big contributing factor to whether or
not spanking is favorable, but in the extreme case as found in graph 2, surveyors who
identified themselves as Black were generally agreeable to spanking at 86% (this
including Strongly Agree and Agree) while Asiatic/Oriental identifiers were lower at
64% using the same method. Proportionally, though, using the Spanking variable, it was
clear that Agree was the dominant choice, with Strongly Agree and Disagree being in
similar percentages, and Strongly Disagree in last with dismal percentages. Again, of the
Household Type variable, 56% to 65% of the surveyors were without children, yet
around 75% of the total surveyors were in general agreement to favoring spanking. The
three main Household Types that dominated the Race variable were Married couple with
children, Married couple without children, and Single adult (no children). The average
percent of those three types together in each of the five race choices was 73%. So the
remaining 27% average was made up of the other nine household types. The one type
that was shown to be most dominant was Married couple with children, which is a most

reasonable choice because it shows two adults raising however many children they have;
this is the ideal scenario in which you want to know if the couple would favor spanking.
The scenario of asking a single adult with no children isn't quite of an impact as asking
the latter. Overall I believe the statistics favor my hypothesis, but In the future I would
definitely look at other variables other than Race, such as Income Level or Geographic
Region in order to get a better idea on how it would affect the rates of agreement
regarding spanking children as punishment. Another route to look at, when thinking
about these statistics, is whether or not spanking leads to the child growing up proper, by
proper meaning avoiding crime and abiding by the law. Would early spanking lead to a
decrease in crime rates in the future, or rather would it fuel crime rates through possible
poor parenting?
Sources Used
http://www3.norc.org/GSS+Website/
http://www.apacenter.com/spanking-children-facts-corporal-punishment/

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