These researchers examined the association between the use of corporal punishment against 3-year-old children and subsequent aggressive behaviour among those children. A total of 2461 mothers were questioned how often they had spanked their 3-year-old child in the past month, as well as asked about their child’s level of aggression, demographic features and eight identified maternal parenting risk factors. Nearly half (45.6%) of the mothers reported no spanking in the previous month, while 27.9% reported spanking one or two times, and 26.5% reported spanking more than twice. Mothers with more parenting risk factors were more likely to spank frequently. Even after controlling for these potential confounding factors, frequent spanking at age 3 (i.e. more than twice in the previous month) increased the odds of higher levels of aggression at age 5 (adjusted OR 1.49; p<0.0001). Signs of aggression included behaviours such as arguing or screaming; cruelty, bullying or meanness to others; destroys things; fighting and frequently threatening others.
