In article ,
"bizby40" wrote:

"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



Really!

Recently I had a conversation with Mom where she said that one of my
siblings almost never got spanked (the rest of us did) because he was so
easy to discipline in other ways -- she'd just look at him and he'd
burst into tears and apologize! Another got spanked regularly, and he
seemed pretty impervious to any other approach.

The one who almost never got spanked was a pretty "good" kid by most
measures, and almost never in trouble. The other had LOTS of problems.

Which was cause, which effect?

Repeat again: correlation does not prove causation.
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care