LOS ANGELES - A new study found that corporal punishment, like spanking, doesn’t yield positive results in a child’s behavior and could in fact inflict real harm.The findings were published Monday in The Lancet after researchers looked at 69 previous studies from several countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, China, Colombia, Greece, Japan, Switzerland, and Turkey.
Some results showed a mix of negative and positive outcomes of parents using corporal punishment, but most showed a negative impact of the disciplinary action.
Researchers collected the data and drew several conclusions regarding physical punishment: it can increase problems in a child’s behavior over time, it’s not associated with positive outcomes over.