Think a little spanking won't do much harm to kids? New research says the effects can be long-lasting.

    Experts say "popping" kids can do more harm than good. A new study of more than 2,500 toddlers from low-income families found that spanking may have detrimental effects on behavior and mental development.

    Children who were spanked as 1-year-olds tended to behave more aggressively at age 2, and did not perform as well as other children on a test measuring thinking skills at age 3.

    Although these effects were somewhat small, the study is just the latest of many supporting psychologists' advice against spanking. Still, some experts say spanking has a time and place.

    The new study focused on children from low-income families because prior research suggested that spanking is more common among them, Berlin said. This may be because of the added stresses of parenting in a low-income situation, or because of a "cultural contagion" of behaviors among people. For example, in some families this study examined, a grandmother would spank a child, or neighbors would encourage physical discipline.

    About one-third of the 1-year-olds, and about half of the 2- and 3-year-olds, had been spanked in the previous week. At all three ages, African-American children were spanked significantly more frequently than those from white and Mexican-American families, and verbally punished more than the other children at ages 2 and 3.

    Previous research had also found that parents who spank are more likely to be younger, less educated, single, and/or depressed and stressed. Spanking is most commonly used among parents who were spanked themselves, who live in the South, and/or who identify themselves as conservative Christians. These parents also tend to believe in the effectiveness of spanking or believe the child is at fault in a given situation.

    More aggressive children are more likely to be spanked. On the other hand, children who were fussier at age 1 were more likely to be spanked and verbally punished.

    Some remain unconvinced that parents should never spank their children.

    The best use of spanking is in children between the ages of 2 and 6 when milder discipline tactics, such as time out, fail.

    That's why psychologists trained parents to use spanking that way for 25 years [from the] late '60s to mid-'90s. Now, the trend of advice is away from spanking, but there's not much hard evidence to support it.

    If the mother sees this fussiness as willful misbehavior and begins verbally punishing or spanking, rather than empathizing with the child, the child's behavior deteriorates into more tantrums and other frustrating behavior.

    Children are too young to understand when parenting behavior is wrong, even at the level of abuse. Physical violence gets passed down in families because the only parenting skills people know are the behaviors that they saw at home.

    Spanking, moreover, reinforces negative memories in the child's mind. Parents should aim instead to build "prominent, happy memories" of childhood for their kids.

    Regardless of income level, all parents can benefit from training classes.

    認為偶爾打次屁股不會對孩子造成很大的傷害？但最近的調查發現打孩子的屁股會造成長遠的影響。

    專家說"啪啪"的打孩子所造成的傷害遠大于它的好處。一項對2500名來自低收入家庭的幼兒的最新調查發現，打屁股會對孩子的行為和心理發展造成有害的影響。

    在一歲的時候被打屁股的孩子會在兩歲的時候有攻擊性行為的趨勢，并且三歲的時候，在一項測量理性思維能力的測試中不能很好的和其他孩子一起完成。

    雖然這些影響是很微小的，但是這項研究最近正好支持了那些心理學家提出的有關反對打屁股的建議。

    "最近的調查把目標集中在了那些低收入家庭的孩子，因為先前的調查提出打屁股在低收入家庭更普遍。"貝林說。這事是因為在低收入的情況下，父母會更容易增加壓力，或者因為所謂的在人們中間的"文化傳播"行為。例如，這些研究中發現，在一些家庭，如果一位祖母打了孩子屁股，她的鄰居便會更傾向于這種體罰。

    大約有三分之一的一歲年齡的兒童和二分之一的兩歲到三歲的兒童在早些的時候被打過屁股。所有三歲年齡的美籍非裔的孩子要比那些白人和墨西哥人家庭中的孩子受到更多的打屁股懲罰，而且受到的口頭上的斥責也要比其他的那些二到三歲的孩子多很多。

    前面的調查也發現了，打屁股這種懲罰更多的再那些年輕，缺少教育，單親，有抑郁癥和有壓力的那些父母中使用。打屁股這種體罰在那些父母間相互毆打，在南部居住和傳統的基督徒家庭中更被普遍的應用。這些家庭的的父母認為在孩子犯錯誤的時候打屁股是一種有效方法。

    越有攻擊性的孩子越有可能被打過屁股。另一面那些一歲左右的挑剔的孩子，越有可能被打屁股和口頭上的斥責。

    那些對此持懷疑態度的家長們最好別再打孩子的屁股了。

    打屁股最好在孩子兩歲到六歲的時候，當那些溫和的懲罰措施不能夠給他們教訓的時候使用，比如

    不及格和不按時回家。

    這就是為什么心里學家會持續25年教導父母怎么使用打屁股這種體罰手段，（從60年代末到90年代中期）.現在的趨勢是勸導父母不再使用這種手段，但是仍然有很多強有力的證據支持打屁股這種體罰手段。

    如果一位媽媽發現了孩子的挑剔的，任性的不當行為，開始訓斥或者打孩子的屁股要比慣著孩子，讓孩子的脾氣更暴躁，產生更壞的行為要好的多。

    孩子太小從而不能分辨出父母的行為的對錯，雖然有時父母的行為時錯的，甚至是到了虐待的水平。暴力行為會在家庭中傳遞下去，因為只有父母的行為是他們在僅能在家中看到的。

    此外，打屁股會增加孩子記憶中的負面影響，家長應該在孩子小的時候給他們建立一個愉悅的，快樂的童年記憶。

    忽略收入水平的原因，所有的家長都可以從培訓班中得到益處