Ever give your little one a little spank to correct behavior? New research shows that even a little “pop” here and there can have long-lasting effects.
Experts say spanking kids can do more harm than good. A new study of 2,500+ toddlers found that spanking may have detrimental effects on both behavior and mental development.
“We’re talking about infants and toddlers, and cognitively, they just don’t understand enough about right or wrong or punishment to benefit from being spanked,” said Lisa Berlin, the study’s lead author and research scientist at the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University.
Berlin found that children who were spanked as 1-year-olds tended to behave more aggressively by age 2, and did not perform as well as other children on tests measuring thinking skills at age 3.

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