A new study has found that spanking does not improve behavior in children in the short term and leads to detrimental behavior in the long term.

Via CBS News: 

Spanking a child leads to bad behaviors, not the better manners some parents may think a smack on the bottom will elicit, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan analyzed 75 studies involving more than 150,000 children that spanned 50 years.

“This is a wide swath of children and the findings are incredibly consistent,” study author Dr. Elizabeth Gershoff told CBS News. “This shows there is a correlation between spanking and negative outcomes and absolutely no correlation between spanking and positive outcomes.”

This is not a huge surprise. Statistics show that spanking specifically and corporal punishment in general has largely become a thing of the past in developed nations.

Last year, Intellectual Takeout wrote about the global push against spanking in developed nations, where it is illegal in 25 European countries even at home. The United States has largely resisted laws against spanking because it remains a popular form of discipline.

What do you think? Will the study inspire a new effort to criminalize spanking? If so, will the effort prove successful?

—

Jon Miltimore is the Senior Editor of Intellectual Takeout.  He is the former Senior Editor of The History Channel Magazine and a former Managing Editor at Scout Media.

Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.