The study, using data from 19,000 children born in the UK in the early 2000s, also found that teenagers experiencing physical punishment in early childhood were markedly more likely to bully siblings and others or engage in cyberbullying.

The effects of smacking appeared most immediately in behaviour problems among infants, while repeated experience of physical punishment at ages three, five and seven was associated with lower literacy.

Link to the study

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[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It clearly doesn't work

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not saying it does, but the evidence presented here isn't showing that it doesn't. Consider a toy model in which most children are "good" and never misbehave, but some children are "bad" and often misbehave. Parents physically punish misbehaving children, and physical punishment does reduce misbehavior. This model would show the same "physically punished children behave worse" outcome that the article describes.

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

There are studies on this. Extensive research shows that physical punishment stops immediate behavior, for a very short time. In psychology it has been established for a long long time that punishment doesn't extinguishes behaviors. In practical terms, the behavior just resurfaces when out of the source of the punishment. In cognitive terms, punishment creates resentment, emotional disregulation, that leads to revenge behavior.