Report on Physical
Punishment in the United States:
What Research Tells Us About Its Effects on Children
Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Ph.D., synthesized one hundred years of
social science research, and found that physical punishment makes it
more, not less, likely that children will be defiant and aggressive in
the future; that physical punishment puts children at risk for mental
health problems, and that children who are physically punished are at
greater risk of serious injury and physical abuse.