WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Spanking may get a child's attention right away, but it can also cause children to become aggressive and possibly even abusive adults, researchers reported on Tuesday.

Spanking has become controversial in recent years, but in the United States, especially, remains a widely used form of discipline. Many studies on the effects of spanking have been done, but the findings vary.

Psychologist Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff, of the National Center for Children in Poverty at New York's Columbia University, analyzed 88 different studies on spanking and smacking.

Spanking was strongly linked with immediate compliance, but also with 10 negative behaviors such as aggression, antisocial behavior and abuse of children and spouses in adulthood, she reports in the July issue of Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association.

"There is general consensus that corporal punishment is effective in getting children to comply immediately, while at the same time there is caution from child abuse researchers that corporal punishment, by its nature, can escalate into physical maltreatment," Gershoff writes.

But she said physical punishment does not automatically mean a child will grow up to be hostile or violent.

"The act of corporal punishment itself is different across (the spectrum of) parents--parents vary in how frequently they use it, how forcefully they administer it, how emotionally aroused they are when they do it, and whether they combine it with other techniques," according to Gershoff.

The more often or more harshly a child was hit, the more likely he or she was to grow up to become aggressive or to have mental health problems, Gershoff found.

Spanking is not the best form of discipline, Gershoff said, because it does not teach children right from wrong. Although it makes children afraid to disobey when parents are present, they feel free to misbehave if they believe they can get away with it, according to the researcher.

Reference Source 89

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