New study links spanking to lower IQ?

[Juvysen]

From medscape - it takes a login, but I've found so much interesting stuff from their newsletter.

Anyway, apparently there was a new study that just came out that linked spanking to lower iq? Anyone hear this? What are your thoughts?

Here's the link: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...e&uac=123268EY

and an excerpt:

"The longitudinal part of our study showed that children who were spanked the most fell behind the average IQ development curve, and those who were never spanked advanced ahead of the average," Dr. Straus said. He presented his results at the 14th International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Trauma in San Diego, California.

I'll see if I can find it in a more accessible venue.

[Juvysen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...edhaveloweriqs

[Violet2]

This was fascinating. I really enjoyed reading the study.

For me the 'money quote' is: "one of the most closely held secrets in child psychology" is that with children age 2 years or under, no form of discipline really works.

"The recidivism rate for bad behavior is about 50% within 2 hours and 100% within 24 hours in 2-year-olds," Dr. Straus said. "This is true no matter what you do, because those children might understand that what they have done is wrong, but they do not have the developmental control of their behavior that enables them not to repeat it. With 2-year-olds, you just have to be consistent and keep using positive discipline over and over."

V

[spedteacher30]

from a link on the same page:

http://www.livescience.com/health/07...ing_study.html

It's a good thing not to spank, but, given lots of other information that is out there, I tend to think you can't say that spanking lowers a child's IQ.

[Juvysen]

Ooh... I had missed that... interesting. Dh and I were just discussing the possibility that it could just be related to SES or something.