Spanking Young Children Declines Overall But Persists In Poorer Households

"The share of U.S. mothers who spank their young children or endorse physical discipline has declined significantly over the past two and a half decades, according to an analysis of four national surveys.

The findings, out Monday in the journal Pediatrics, came from an analysis of data from 1988 to 2011. Researcher found that 21 percent of median-income mothers of kindergarten-aged children endorsed physical discipline at the end of that period — down from 46 percent at the start.

"There's been a substantial decrease in the share of parents who are reporting having spanked their child in the last week," says Rebecca Ryan, a psychologist at Georgetown University who led the analysis. "And there's a been substantial decrease in the share of parents who say they would spank or hit their child in response to misbehavior.""