Although the acceptability of physical punishment, such as
spanking, as a disciplinary practice continues to be debated
among the public, research continues to build a strong case that
parents' use of physical punishment is associated with negative
child outcomes. Specifically, the more often parents physically
punish their children, the more likely their children are to
experience aggression, antisocial behavior, and mental health
problems, and to suffer physical abuse at the hands of their
parents (Gershoff, 2002). Yet, the majority of U.S. parents use
physical aggression to discipline their children, often
beginning when children are very young. Indeed, 30% of one year
old children had experienced physical punishment at least once
in the prior month (as reported in presentation #1 in this
symposium) and 65% of three year old children had experienced
physical punishment at least once in the prior month (Taylor et
al., 2011). Paper #1: Parental physical punishment of one year
old children and risk for Child