Parents who hit their children to discipline them could be
increasing their risk of mental illness in adulthood, according
to a new Canadian study. Researchers from the University of
Manitoba studied data collected from more than 34,600 American
adults who were surveyed in 2004 and 2005. Participants were
asked: "As a child, how often were you ever pushed, grabbed,
shoved, slapped or hit by your parents or any adult living in
your house?" About 6 percent of respondents said they had been
physically punished sometimes, fairly often or very often as a
child but weren't abused in other ways. The researchers found
those people were 59 percent more likely to have alcohol
problems, 41 percent more likely to have depression and 24
percent more likely to have a panic disorder than those who
weren't punished physically. The researchers said 2 to 7 percent
of adult mental disorders occur as a result of physical
punishment during childhood. But the researchers said there were
limitations to their study, because it requi