"Catherine Woodgold" wrote in message
...
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.

It seems intuitive to me that children who misbehave more
would be spanked more. How do the studies rule out
this possibility?

It also seems intuitive to me that emotionally volatile
parents would have emotionally volatile children
(biological children), and therefore the children who
are most likely to misbehave, also have the parents
most likely to spank. How do the studies address
this issue?

Bizby