Fox News likes spanking children

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Fox News -- surprise, surprise -- is playing up a new study purportedly showing that "[y]oung children spanked by their parents may grow up to be happier and more successful than those who have never been hit."

That is to say, that corporal punishment is good for you -- so just bend over and take it. This, presumably, is the message, firm and clear, that Fox wants you to take away from this.

I must add, though, that the study was conducted by Marjorie Gunnoe, a psychology professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Calvin College is a conservative Christian college:

We pledge fidelity to Jesus Christ, offering our hearts and lives to do God's work in God's world,

the college states in its Mission Statement. It's a college full of Republicans. President Bush even gave the Commencement Address there in 2005.

I must add that John Calvin, after whom this college was named, was hardly known to be soft with respect to violence and punishment.

I must add that perhaps America's leading proponent of corporal punishment of children is James Dobson, a leading evangelical Christian.

Finally, I must add that other studies refute the results of this one. In 2002, for example, a psychologist at Columbia University, Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff published "a large-scale meta-analysis of 88 studies" on relationship between corporal punishment and positive/negative behaviours in children. As George Holden of the University of Texas put in in a commentary that accompanied the study, Gershoff's findings "reflect the growing body of evidence indicating that corporal punishment does no good and may even cause harm."

I cannot comment specifically on Gunnoe's study, nor on what motivates her. She may be doing what she thinks is "God's work in God's world," or she may be a serious academic engaging in serious, meaningful work. (There are some seemingly serious academics who have disagreed with Gershoff's findings, and I suppose we ought to take their findings seriously, even if we oppose corporal punishment.) I just find the above connections rather curious.

What I don't find curious is Fox's enthusiasm for the story, and for the findings of Gunnoe's study, given its enthusiasm for brutality (i.e., bombing, torturing) generally.