In reply
Our reply will first deal with the specific comments in each of the 3 letters separately and then conclude with comments on more general issues.
LARZELERE, BAUMRIND, AND POLITE
1-Week Referent Period
We are indebted to Larzelere et al for alerting us to the likelihood that our no-spanking group includes occasional spankers. To the extent that this is the case, the decrease in antisocial behavior that we found for children in the "none" group may indicate an improvement in the behavior of children whose parents spank, but do so only infrequently. Although that is a plausible interpretation, data from another study enable us to investigate this issue by classifying spanking as "never" or "not in the past 6 months," or the frequency of corporal punishment (CP) in the previous 6 months.1 We found that antisocial behavior was lowest among the never-spanked children, higher for those who had previously been spanked but not in the previous . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Previous Research Found Beneficial Effects
Spanking Accounts for Only 1.3% of the Variance
The 53% Increase in Child Abuse Effect Disappears When Violence Between the Parents Is Controlled
The Gunnoe and Mariner Study Is Superior to the Straus et al Study and Shows That CP Is Beneficial for African American and Young Children
"No Studies...Have Documented Harmful Effects of...Spanking 2- to 6-Year-Olds"
Utility of Nondefinitive Evidence
AMBATI, AMBATI, AND RAO
Controls for Confounding Variables
Representativeness of the Sample
Biased Perception Explains the Findings
Small Effect Size
Experiment-Wise Error
CP Is a "Time-Tested" Tool
Rise in Youth Crime and Delinquency
MILLER
COMMENT
Beliefs and Values About CP
Next Steps
