Tuesday November 13 2012 Is it okay to smack a child? ‘Smacking
increases cancer risk’, the Daily Express boldly reports, while
The Sun believes that smacking can also increase the risk of
asthma or heart disease. These reports exaggerate a piece of
research that has significant limitations. The news is based on
a study that asked a sample of Saudi Arabian adults with cancer,
asthma or heart disease how frequently they had been physically
punished or verbally insulted as a child (referred to in the
papers as smacking and shouting). The researchers then looked at
whether there was a link between the two, comparing these adults
with healthy controls. They found that reported physical
punishment and insult was associated with an increased risk of
developing adult cancer, asthma and heart disease. The
researchers speculate that regular beatings and insults create a
sense of threat in a child and this may then trigger stress
responses that may have long-term biological consequences.
Despite the interesting nature