Think a little spanking won't do much harm to kids? New research says the effects can be long-lasting.

Experts say "popping" kids can do more harm than good. A new study of more than 2,500 toddlers from low-income families found that spanking may have detrimental effects on behavior and mental development.

Children who were spanked as 1-year-olds tended to behave more aggressively at age 2, and did not perform as well as other children on a test measuring thinking skills at age 3.

Although these effects were somewhat small, the study is just the latest of many supporting psychologists' advice against spanking. Still, some experts say spanking has a time and place.

The new study focused on children from low-income families because prior research suggested that spanking is more common among them, Berlin said. This may be because of the added stresses of parenting in a low-income situation, or because of a "cultural contagion" of behaviors among people. For example, in some families this study examined, a grandmother would spank a child, or neighbors would encourage physical discipline.

About one-third of the 1-year-olds, and about half of the 2- and 3-year-olds, had been spanked in the previous week. At all three ages, African-American children were spanked significantly more frequently than those from white and Mexican-American families, and verbally punished more than the other children at ages 2 and 3.

Previous research had also found that parents who spank are more likely to be younger, less educated, single, and/or depressed and stressed. Spanking is most commonly used among parents who were spanked themselves, who live in the South, and/or who identify themselves as conservative Christians. These parents also tend to believe in the effectiveness of spanking or believe the child is at fault in a given situation.

More aggressive children are more likely to be spanked. On the other hand, children who were fussier at age 1 were more likely to be spanked and verbally punished.

Some remain unconvinced that parents should never spank their children.

The best use of spanking is in children between the ages of 2 and 6 when milder discipline tactics, such as time out, fail.

That's why psychologists trained parents to use spanking that way for 25 years [from the] late '60s to mid-'90s. Now, the trend of advice is away from spanking, but there's not much hard evidence to support it.

If the mother sees this fussiness as willful misbehavior and begins verbally punishing or spanking, rather than empathizing with the child, the child's behavior deteriorates into more tantrums and other frustrating behavior.

Children are too young to understand when parenting behavior is wrong, even at the level of abuse. Physical violence gets passed down in families because the only parenting skills people know are the behaviors that they saw at home.

Spanking, moreover, reinforces negative memories in the child's mind. Parents should aim instead to build "prominent, happy memories" of childhood for their kids.

Regardless of income level, all parents can benefit from training classes.

认为偶尔打次屁股不会对孩子造成很大的伤害？但最近的调查发现打孩子的屁股会造成长远的影响。

专家说"啪啪"的打孩子所造成的伤害远大于它的好处。一项对2500名来自低收入家庭的幼儿的最新调查发现，打屁股会对孩子的行为和心理发展造成有害的影响。

在一岁的时候被打屁股的孩子会在两岁的时候有攻击性行为的趋势，并且三岁的时候，在一项测量理性思维能力的测试中不能很好的和其他孩子一起完成。

虽然这些影响是很微小的，但是这项研究最近正好支持了那些心理学家提出的有关反对打屁股的建议。

"最近的调查把目标集中在了那些低收入家庭的孩子，因为先前的调查提出打屁股在低收入家庭更普遍。"贝林说。这事是因为在低收入的情况下，父母会更容易增加压力，或者因为所谓的在人们中间的"文化传播"行为。例如，这些研究中发现，在一些家庭，如果一位祖母打了孩子屁股，她的邻居便会更倾向于这种体罚。

大约有三分之一的一岁年龄的儿童和二分之一的两岁到三岁的儿童在早些的时候被打过屁股。所有三岁年龄的美籍非裔的孩子要比那些白人和墨西哥人家庭中的孩子受到更多的打屁股惩罚，而且受到的口头上的斥责也要比其他的那些二到三岁的孩子多很多。

前面的调查也发现了，打屁股这种惩罚更多的再那些年轻，缺少教育，单亲，有抑郁症和有压力的那些父母中使用。打屁股这种体罚在那些父母间相互殴打，在南部居住和传统的基督徒家庭中更被普遍的应用。这些家庭的的父母认为在孩子犯错误的时候打屁股是一种有效方法。

越有攻击性的孩子越有可能被打过屁股。另一面那些一岁左右的挑剔的孩子，越有可能被打屁股和口头上的斥责。

那些对此持怀疑态度的家长们最好别再打孩子的屁股了。

打屁股最好在孩子两岁到六岁的时候，当那些温和的惩罚措施不能够给他们教训的时候使用，比如

不及格和不按时回家。

这就是为什么心里学家会持续25年教导父母怎么使用打屁股这种体罚手段，（从60年代末到90年代中期）.现在的趋势是劝导父母不再使用这种手段，但是仍然有很多强有力的证据支持打屁股这种体罚手段。

如果一位妈妈发现了孩子的挑剔的，任性的不当行为，开始训斥或者打孩子的屁股要比惯着孩子，让孩子的脾气更暴躁，产生更坏的行为要好的多。

孩子太小从而不能分辨出父母的行为的对错，虽然有时父母的行为时错的，甚至是到了虐待的水平。暴力行为会在家庭中传递下去，因为只有父母的行为是他们在仅能在家中看到的。

此外，打屁股会增加孩子记忆中的负面影响，家长应该在孩子小的时候给他们建立一个愉悦的，快乐的童年记忆。

忽略收入水平的原因，所有的家长都可以从培训班中得到益处