ABSTRACT
A study by Robert A. Larzelere found that a combination of non-corporal punishment and reasoning was as effective as corporal punishment and reasoning in correcting disobedience. The large percentage who hated their parents for hitting them is important because it is evidence that corporal punishment does chip away at the bond between child and parent. Contrary to the "spoiled child" myth, children of non-spanking parents are likely to be easier to manage and better behaved than the children of parents who spank. The most basic step in eliminating corporal punishment is for parent educators, psychologists, and pediatricians to make a simple and unambiguous statement that hitting a child is wrong and that a child never, ever, under any circumstances except literal physical self-defense, should be hit. The idea of selective inattention raises the question of why the "necessity" of spanking is such a deeply held belief.
