Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The majority of U. Prospective analyses examined whether spanking by the child's mother, father, or mother's current partner when the child was 1-year-old was associated with household CPS involvement between age 1 and age 5.
Given the undesirable consequences of spanking children and a lack of empirical evidence to suggest positive effects of physical punishment, professionals who work with families should counsel parents not to spank infants and toddlers. For optimal benefits, efforts to educate parents regarding alternative forms of discipline should begin during the child's first year of life.
In part because of the adverse associations of spanking with children's developmental outcomes, professional organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of Social Workers have issued statements urging parents to avoid the use of physical discipline, and the American Academy of Pediatrics provides guidelines for effective discipline that include alternatives to spanking.
Attitudes supporting the use of physical punishment are reflected in parental behavior. Whereas the number of children ages 9 or older who have experienced physical discipline has declined substantially since , there has been a much smaller decrease in the number of children ages 2—4 who have been spanked or slapped in the past year Straus, The widespread prevalence of physical discipline of children age 3 and younger suggests that for most U.
That is, according to most states' definitions of child maltreatment, spanking even a very young child is not considered to be child abuse unless a physical mark e. However, few studies have examined whether spanking is associated with subsequent Child Protective Services CPS involvement or child maltreatment. Prior studies have looked at the predictors of spanking infants e. In addition, an evaluation by Chaffin et al. These results imply that spanking is associated with CPS involvement, but do not indicate why this may be the case.
