Spanking children worsens their behavior, study says

A new study found that physical punishment, like spanking, doesn’t yield positive results in children and is more likely to worsen their behavior over time.

Findings published Monday in The Lancet revealed that physical punishment can increase problems in a child’s behavior over time; it’s not associated with positive outcomes over time; it increases the risk of involvement from child protective services.

According to the study’s senior author Elizabeth Gershoff, her team realized that physical punishment led to “increased aggression, increased antisocial behavior, and increased disruptive behavior in school,” Fox 10 reports.

Gershoff also noted that in some studies a dose-response effect was discovered, showing that when the physical punishment increased in frequency so did the negative behavior such as arguments and disobedience, Fox reported.