兒時挨打長大就要變傻

家長常用的懲罰方式  

My print column this week examines three recent studies tying spanking of children to their impaired cognitive development. One study, co-authored by Lisa J. Berlin, a developmental psychologist at Duke University, found that spanking at age one is linked to lower scores on a cognitive test at age three. Another study, co-authored by Murray Straus, also ties spanking at one age to lower cognitive scores at a later age. And a third study by Straus, presented at a recent conference, ties nations' high rates of spanking to lower average IQs。
    本周我在自己的專欄里分析了不久前三份分析打孩子屁股與認(rèn)知發(fā)展受損之間關(guān)聯(lián)的研究報告。杜克大學(xué)(Duke University)發(fā)展心理學(xué)專家波林(Lisa J. Berlin)是其中一份的研究報告的作者之一，她在認(rèn)知測試中發(fā)現(xiàn)，一歲時挨打的小孩在三歲時認(rèn)知能力得分偏低。在另外一份研究報告中，作者之一的斯圖魯斯(Murray Straus)也提出在一定年齡挨打的小孩會在日后認(rèn)知測試得分較低。第三份報告也是斯圖魯斯撰寫的，這份在不久前的一個大會上發(fā)表的研究報告將多個國家的兒童受體罰較多而平均智商下降的問題聯(lián)系了起來。

    Skeptics of such studies note that they often fail to demonstrate that spanking caused the measured effects; perhaps cognitive problems are tied to behavioral problems, which themselves cause spanking. Berlin's study addressed this by examining whether cognitive development at age two was tied to spanking at age three; it wasn't。
    對此類研究持懷疑觀點的人指出，這些研究往往未能證明是打孩子造成他們?nèi)蘸笳J(rèn)知能力下降，因為認(rèn)知問題可能與行為問題相關(guān)，后者本身可能造成他們遭受體罰。波林的研究涵蓋了這一問題，她研究了兩歲時的認(rèn)知發(fā)展是否與三歲時的挨打相關(guān)，結(jié)果是否定的。

    Another common weakness of spanking studies, according to Robert Larzelere, a research methodologist at Oklahoma State University and former colleague of Straus's as a post-doctoral fellow, is that they don't compare spanking to other forms of punishment. Berlin partially addressed that, by comparing spanking to verbal punishment, which didn't have the same links to poor cognitive development. Larzelere said his own studies, however, show that all corrective actions - physical and otherwise - have essentially the same effects。
    俄克拉荷馬州立大學(xué)(Oklahoma State University)研究方法學(xué)學(xué)者、斯圖魯斯在博士后研究時的同事拉澤萊爾(Robert Larzelere)指出，在針對體罰孩子的研究中，另一個常見的缺憾之處是沒有對打屁股和其他形式的懲罰加以橫向比較。波林的研究對此有所涉及，她在比較了打孩子屁股與口頭懲罰之后發(fā)現(xiàn)，后者與認(rèn)知能力降低無關(guān)。不過，拉澤萊爾說他在自己的研究中發(fā)現(xiàn)，所有糾錯行為，不論有無身體接觸，從本質(zhì)上都會產(chǎn)生同樣的效果。

    “Spanking researchers have been waiting a long time for a study as high-quality as this one,” Marjorie Gunnoe, a professor of psychology at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., said。
　  密歇根州大急流城凱爾文學(xué)院(Calvin College)心理學(xué)教授甘農(nóng)(Marjorie Gunnoe)說，在研究孩子受體罰的問題上學(xué)者為了完成工作要等上很長時間，就是為了把自己的研究做得像上述報告那樣質(zhì)量一流。

    However, the controversy over spanking isn't likely to be settled over these studies. It is a subject of dispute between the American Academy of Pediatrics and a smaller, splinter group called the American College of Pediatricians that supports spanking in certain instances. “No one likes to spank a child, but for some children it is the only method that will work to gain control of the child's behavior and ultimately the will,” said Dr. Den Trumbull, vice president of the group, and a pediatrician in Montgomery, Ala。
    不過，圍繞打孩子的爭論不可能因為這些研究而平息。美國兒童研究會(American Academy of Pediatrics)就和美國兒科醫(yī)師學(xué)會(American College of Pediatricians)這家規(guī)模較小、較為松散的機構(gòu)在一問題上發(fā)生了論戰(zhàn)。后者認(rèn)為在某些情況下打孩子屁股是可以的。阿拉巴馬州蒙哥馬利的兒科醫(yī)生、美國兒科醫(yī)師學(xué)會副總裁楚布爾醫(yī)生(Den Trumbull)說，沒人喜歡打孩子，但對一些孩子來說，這是唯一能有效地控制他的行為，并最終控制他意愿的辦法。

    Adam Zolotor, an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, said that to control for sufficient variables such as genetics would require a complex research effort. “The best way to do this would be to get enough twins that were separated at birth,” he said. “Let's say you need at least 500 twins separated at birth, and probably more. I don't know if you could find that many.”
    北卡羅來納大學(xué)(University of North Carolina)的家庭醫(yī)學(xué)助理教授佐羅托(Adam Zolotor)說，要想分析遺傳學(xué)等足夠多的變量，就需要進(jìn)行非常復(fù)雜的研究。他說最好的辦法是研究足夠多從出生后就各自生活的雙胞胎，需要至少500 對，或許還需要更多；我不知道人們能否找到這么多研究對象。

    Vivian Friedman, a professor and clinical psychologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham school of medicine also doubts that a research study could ever settle the spanking debate. “The best way to test their hypothesis that spanking lowers IQ would be to...to measure IQ in a child repeatedly over time (maybe every year or two years) while measuring the numbers of spankings administered,” Friedman said. “Even so, it would be hard to rule out other physical and emotional environmental factors for causality.”
　　阿拉巴馬大學(xué)(University of Alabama)伯明翰分校醫(yī)學(xué)院的教授、臨床心理學(xué)家弗萊德曼(Vivian Friedman)也認(rèn)為僅靠一份研究不足以永久平息圍繞打孩子問題的爭議。她說，為了證實打孩子造成智商下降的假說，最好的辦法就是對一個孩子反復(fù)進(jìn)行智商測試(或許一年一次，或許兩年一次)，同時紀(jì)錄他挨打的次數(shù)。她說，即便如此，也很難排除因其他身體或情感等環(huán)境因素造成的影響。