Jojy Cheriyan MD,MPH-April 29,2014

Studies have previously reported the harms of yelling at children and how it could worsen the behavior rather than improving it. But, this new study has found that the incidence of spanking (hitting) is also high among those parents who yell at their children. It has been published (before print) online last week in the Journal of Family Psychology.

The researchers studied 33 families by giving the mothers a digital voice recorder to wear on their upper arm. They were told to turn on the recorder when they returned home from work or at 5 p.m., and to turn it off when their child fell asleep. The recordings were taken for four to six consecutive days.

The researchers discovered 41 incidents of spanking or hitting children in 15 different families over a six-night period. Recordings gave them real-time information, which self-reported surveys cannot give. This makes the study stand out among other studies in gathering true information. Audio recording helped the researchers capture a wide range of information that is often ignored.

The rate of corporal punishment, such as spanking and slapping, exceeded estimates found in other studies that relied on parents' self- reporting. While other studies discovered that American parents of 2-year-olds typically reported they spanked or slapped their child 18 times a year, this new study based on the audiotapes discovered such behavior occurred 18 times a week.

Among parents, 79 percent of mothers worked, either full time (61 percent) or part time (18 percent), while 91 percent of fathers worked full time outside the home.

Researchers also found that parents are hitting their children over silly misdeeds and some of the moms are doing it a lot more than the self-reported-data has ever identified. After being hit, children were misbehaving again within 10 minutes in about 75 percent of the incidents. Parents who yell are more likely to spank their children.

"Based on 20 years of research on physical punishment, it is recommended that it should not be used on children of any age", says Dr.Tracie Afifi, an Associate Professor in the department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba , Canada. She has been  the principal investigator of several studies of this kind.

Verbal aggression and physical aggression lead to mental problems including suicide or self-harm tendencies among children.  A recent study published in the Journal of Pediatrics recommended pediatricians to ask children about such parental abuses; but no guidelines have been imposed yet. It also found that spanking or slapping children may increase the odds to developing mental health issues into adulthood.

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