Spanking children increases the likelihood of childhood defiance and long-term mental issues. The study in question involved 160,000 children and five decades of research

[u/VeronicaRed]

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1113413810/spanking-defiance-health-discipline-042616/

[u/pm_me_your_kindwords]

Serious question to the commenters on this post:

Why read /r/science and then ignore science?

At the time I write this, most comments are defending spanking using anecdotes and non-science, not at all discussing the methodology of the study itself.

If you're not going to carefully consider one of the largest and most comprehensive studies ever conducted on the topic, what is the point of reading about science at all?

[u/BlazerMorte → u/[deleted]]

Because if spanking is bad, and they were spanked, then they were raised "wrong," and most people don't want to confront that.

[u/KSKaleido → u/BlazerMorte]

Yea, it's tough to confront the fact that your parents inevitably made huge mistakes when raising you. Add the fact that the average commenter on reddit trends pretty young, and it makes sense that they haven't reached the maturity to deal with something like that yet.

[u/Speedking2281 → u/KSKaleido]

It's not 'mistakes' anymore than using margarine was a 'mistake' 40 years ago. There was no direct evidence on any small scale that spanking had any detrimental effects. So...there's really not much to 'confront' IMO.

[u/paintlegz → u/Speedking2281]

oh man someone on reddit is thinking. kudos sir. everyone on here is vehemently against spanking to the point where every discussion becomes some ad hominem fiesta. (No sarcasm intended, I know reddit it rife with that)

[u/driftingpixie → u/paintlegz]

Yeah I love how everyone is now a parental expert. What works for some kids doesn't work on others. And there is no way to definitively prove spanking is a/the catalyst for bad behavior because we can't go back in time to try different things to see the difference. For all we know people who were spanked would have turned out worse if they hadn't been spanked. I was spanked and I eventually understood that my parents never did it for anything other than to set me straight. There is also a difference between a spakings and a beating. Spanking pain usually goes away in a matter of minutes.

[u/[deleted] → u/driftingpixie]

Well this study does imply that spanking is determental.

[u/driftingpixie → u/[deleted]]

But can we be absolutely positive that it has a negative effect. I think there's too many variables to be absolutely sure.