How effective or ineffective is physical punishment in correcting children's behavior?

Physical punishment can convey to the recipient the idea that physical aggression is permissible and perhaps even desirable. how effective or ineffective is physical punishment in correcting children's behavior?

From my personal experiences, I have seen that physical punishment can be both effective and ineffective. It very much depends on the child in question, to what methods that specific child responds to better, and the lesson/behavioral change that is trying to be implemented. 

 

 

I believe physical punishment should only be used when the child's safety or health are at risk. If physical punishment is saved for only such circumstances, the impact will be stronger and worth the risk of the child in question thinking that the aggression is desirable and/or permissible. However, if you were to say, smack the child every time he/she misbehaves the physical punishment will quite soon not have the desired impact. The child will quite possibly grow up with the feeling that it's okay to, for example, push, hit, and/or pinch when someone doesn't do exactly as told. 

I believe that positive reinforcement is a much more effective way to affect change in a child's behavior. Instilling that ideal into a child from a young age would be a lot more beneficial for the child in his or her journey through life into adulthood.

 

 

There are however many cultures that recognize physical punishment as being the only way to raise a child and they do not pay much attention to the changing times or question these methods. It is the only way they know. It's the way they were raised and they do not feel or notice the effects it has had on them.  The last sentence in itself proves the statement in question to be true; "physical punishment does convey that it is permissible and in some cases the desirable way to handle issues."

 

Even after all of the above, I would still say that physical punishment still has a time and place, that time and place needs to be chosen carefully. As mentioned before, in circumstances that the child's health and or safety are at risk. If they were to run into the street or they are playing with something dangerous, I wouldn't hesitate to give the child a quick smack on their behind accompanied by a clear explanation to the danger of what they were doing as a reason for the smack. However, in general I would use physical punishment only as a last resort.