A study on spanking

 You know what spanking teaches children? That physical violence and bullying are proper responses to behavior you don't like in other people.

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 Study: Spanking doesn't work, but average 4-year-old is spanked 936 times per year anyway (Click here to read more)

By Scott Kaufman
Wednesday, April 16, 2014 11:45 EDT
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New research published in the Journal of Family Psychology indicates not only that parents punish their children more frequently than they admit, but that the form of the punishment - spanking - is an ineffective means of behavioral modification.
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The study analyzed real-time audio recordings of parents interacting with their children. The parents had been given guidelines: spank infrequently, only for serious misbehavior, and only as a last resort.
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Thirty-three families were recorded for between four and six evenings, and in 90 percent of the incidents involving corporal punishment, the immediate cause was "noncompliance," such as a refusal to stop sucking fingers, eating improperly, leaving the house without asking permission. In 49 percent of the spanking incidents, the parent sounded angry prior to initiating the spanking.
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"The recordings show that most parents responded either impulsively or emotionally, rather than being intentional with their discipline," lead author George Holden, a psychology professor at Southern Methodist University, said. On average, it only required 30 seconds for nonviolent discipline to escalate to corporal punishment.