研究發現：打屁股會影響兒童的大腦發育

你也許認爲，孩子不聽話，打兩下屁股不算體罰，然而新研究發現，打屁股對兒童大腦發育產生的負面影響和暴力虐待幾乎是一樣的。

Spanking may affect a child's brain development in similar ways to more severe forms of violence, according to a new study led by Harvard researchers.

哈佛大學研究人員領頭的一項新研究表明，打屁股對兒童大腦發育的影響，可能與更嚴重的暴力虐待造成的後果類似。

The research, published recently in the journal Child Development, builds on existing studies that show heightened activity in certain regions of the brains of children who experience abuse in response to threat cues.

這篇最近發表在《兒童發育》期刊上的論文基於現有的一些研究，這些研究發現，遭受虐待的兒童在應對威脅時大腦的特定區域活動會增強。

The group found that children who had been spanked had a greater neural response in multiple regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). These areas of the brain respond to cues in the environment that tend to be consequential, such as a threat, and may affect decision-making and processing of situations.

研究團隊發現，打屁股會增強兒童大腦前額葉皮層多個區域的神經反應。大腦的這些區域會根據環境中的威脅等信號做出反應，並可能影響兒童的決策以及對局勢的分析能力。

"We know that children whose families use corporal punishment are more likely to develop anxiety, depression, behavior problems, and other mental health problems, but many people don't think about spanking as a form of violence," said Katie A. McLaughlin, senior researcher on the study. "In this study, we wanted to examine whether there was an impact of spanking at a neurobiological level, in terms of how the brain is developing."

該研究的高級研究員凱蒂·A·麥克勞林表示：“我們知道，遭受體罰的孩子更容易出現焦慮、抑鬱、行爲問題和其他心理健康問題，但是許多人並不會把打屁股看作暴力行爲。在這項研究中，我們想從神經生物學層面看看打屁股是否對大腦發育有影響。”

According to the study's authors, corporal punishment has been linked to the development of mental health issues, anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and substance use disorders. And recent studies show that approximately half of parents in US studies reported spanking their children in the past year and one-third in the past week. However, the relationship between spanking and brain activity has not previously been studied.

研究作者指出，體罰一直和心理健康問題、焦慮、抑鬱、行爲問題和藥物濫用有關。最近的研究顯示，美國約半數父母報告稱在過去一年打過孩子，三分之一在過去一週打過。然而，還未有人研究過打屁股和大腦活動之間的關係。

McLaughlin and her colleagues analyzed data from a large study of children between the ages of three and 11. They focused on 147 children around ages 10 and 11 who had been spanked, excluding children who had also experienced more severe forms of violence.

麥克勞林和同事們分析了一項涵蓋了3歲到11歲兒童的大型研究的數據。他們重點關注了147名被打過屁股的10歲到11歲兒童，但不包括曾遭受更嚴重暴力虐待的兒童。

Each child lay in an MRI machine and watched a computer screen on which were displayed different images of actors making "fearful" and "neutral" faces. A scanner captured the child's brain activity in response to each kind of face, and those images were analyzed to determine whether the faces sparked different patterns of brain activity in children who were spanked compared to those who were not.

每個孩子接受核磁共振成像掃描時，面前的電腦屏幕會播放演員做出的“恐懼”和“中立”表情。掃描儀會在屏幕播放不同表情時捕獲孩子的大腦活動，研究人員對這些大腦成像進行分析，以確定被打過屁股的孩子的大腦活動是否和沒被打過屁股的孩子有所不同。

"On average, across the entire sample, fearful faces elicited greater activation than neutral faces in many regions throughout the brain... and children who were spanked demonstrated greater activation in multiple regions of PFC to fearful relative to neutral faces than children who were never spanked," researchers wrote.

研究人員寫道：“平均而言，在所有樣本中，恐懼的臉引發的大腦多個區域的反應都比中立的臉要強烈……相比從未被打過屁股的孩子，那些被打過屁股的孩子看到恐懼的臉時大腦前額葉皮層多個區域產生的反應更大。”

By contrast, "there were no regions of the brain where activation to fearful relative to neutral faces differed between children who were abused and children who were spanked."

相比之下，“被虐待的孩子和被打屁股的孩子在看到恐懼的臉時，大腦任何區域的反應都沒什麼不同。”

The findings are in line with similar research conducted on children who had experienced severe violence, suggesting that "while we might not conceptualize corporal punishment to be a form of violence, in terms of how a child's brain responds, it's not all that different than abuse," said McLaughlin. "It's more a difference of degree than of type."

麥克勞林表示，這些研究發現與一項針對遭受嚴重暴力兒童開展的類似研究結論相一致，表明“儘管我們不會將體罰視爲暴力行爲，但從兒童的大腦反應來看，體罰和暴力並沒有太大區別。更多的是程度上的差異，而非本質差異。”

Ultimately, added McLaughlin, "we're hopeful that this finding may encourage families not to use this strategy, and that it may open people's eyes to the potential negative consequences of corporal punishment in ways they haven't thought of before."

最後，麥克勞林補充道：“我們希望這一發現可以鼓勵家庭不要使用體罰策略，或許這一研究能以人們從未想過的方式讓他們看到體罰的潛在負面影響。”