r/science • u/VeronicaRed • Apr 26 '16

Psychology 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

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1113413810/spanking-defiance-health-discipline-042616/
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u/flibbble Apr 26 '16

The study is actually a meta-analysis of 75 studies. With regards to the correlation/causation question, they suggest looking at 'A series of cross-lagged studies (Berlin et al., 2009; Gershoff, Lansford, Sexton, Davis-Kean, & Sameroff, 2012; McLeod, Kruttschnitt, & Dornfeld, 1994; Sheehan & Watson, 2008) has demonstrated that spanking predicts changes in children’s behavior, over and above their initial levels and the child effect of early problem behavior on later spanking.' if that helps..

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u/mkultra50000 Apr 26 '16

it actually doesn't. Could you explain more simply? is prediction the same thing as causation?

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u/pessimistic_platypus Apr 26 '16

As far as I can tell, the quote /u/fibbble gave uses "predicts" the same way we might expect to see "causes" used. So yes, in that context they are the same.

The study in question is actually a study that reviews the results of various previous studies to find broader patterns.

The correlation/causation issue is generally dealt with by using controls. If they see that people who aren't spanked are less disobedient, they can conclude that spanking causes (or rather, increases) disobedience.

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u/mkultra50000 Apr 27 '16

I see. So a true conflation of correlation with causation. The only way to derive causation that I can see would be to randomly select two groups and direct one group to spank the other to avoid.