Children who are spanked as punishment are at much greater risk for having problems later with both vocabulary and behavior, according to a  team of Columbia University researchers.

Dr. Michael MacKenzie, Associate Professor at Columbia School of Social Work (CSSW), Dr. Eric Nicklas, Adjunct Assistant Professor at CSSW, Dr. Jane Waldfogel, Compton Foundation Centennial Professor at CSSW, and Dr. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor at Teacher’s College co-authored the study.

Researchers discovered that spanking is still a common practice in America. Half of mothers reported spanking their child at 5 years old, as did one third of fathers.

One of the key findings of the study was that children who were spanked frequently by their fathers at age 5 had lower vocabulary scores at age 9, even after controlling for an array of other risk factors and earlier vocabulary.

Lead author Michael MacKenzie noted, “This is an important finding, because few studies in this area have examined effects on cognitive development.”

Additionally, children that were spanked at 5 years old also went on to have higher levels of acting-out behavior problems at age 9, again even after controlling for other risk factors and earlier development.

“This finding is consistent with what has been found in the literature, but is of added importance given the detailed nature of the data we were using which allowed us to control for a host of other factors that also affect children’s behavior, including their behavior at younger ages,” MacKenzie added.

The findings of this study were based on data used from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFS), which is a  population based birth cohort that was conducted by researchers at Princeton and Columbia Universities of nearly 5,000 children born in 20 large American cities between 1998 and 2000.

These results suggest that children would benefit greatly if more parents would adopt positive parenting behaviors. The findings are particularly important in the United States where high rates of spanking still occur.

This study can be found in the journal Pediatrics.