On 24 Jun 2005, Catherine Woodgold wrote:
[snip]
Numerous studies have found correlations between spanking
and misbehaviour. These correlations continue to be
found in spite of controlling for many possible confounding
variables such as socio-economic status.

The problem with these studies is that if they do the same statistical
analysis with non-cp alternatives, the same correlation also show up.
You might want to look up on the studies done by Dr. Larzelere.

(CW had said
Straus & Mouradian (1998) reported that children whose mothers never
spanked them in their entire lives were significantly less antisocial than
even
the most infrequently-spanked children.

I am glad that you brought up Straus & Mouradian (1998). In this study,
they also looked at non-cp alternatives like:

1) Talking to the child calmly
2) Sent the child to the room
3) Time-out
4) Removal of privileges

All of these together "was found to have a much stronger relation than any of
the other variables." (to ASB).

Now if you can point me to a study where the non-cp alternatives have been
shown to be better than spanking under the same statistical analysis, I'll
be deeply appreciated.

Doan