The Science and Statistics Behind Spanking Suggests that

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Dr. Baumrind also controlled for many variables to get the most
accurate data. 356 For instance, she only studied middle-class families to
negate the many complicating influences poverty has on children. 357 She
compared children that had never been spanked and children that had
been spanked. 358 Of those that had been spanked, she analyzed the
various effects of different spanking styles, considering both frequency
and intensity. 359
Periodically throughout the study (generally when a child turned
four-, nine-, and fourteen-years-old), Dr. Baumrind’s teams spent fifty
hours at each child’s home, school, and playground. 360 The teams
observed the interactions of the child’s family, and individually
interviewed the child, his parents, and his teachers. 361 This was done to
interviews and observational procedures, two psychologists, working independently, rated each
adolescent . . . .” and parent.).
356. See, e.g., Baumrind, Causally Relevant Research, supra note 21, at 2 (describing how she
controlled the study by (1) distinguishing abusive parents and removing them from the study, (2)
controlling for the initial level of child misbehavior, (3) keeping close record of positive and
negative parenting practices to account for parental rejection, (4) relying on multiple sources to
describe parent and child behavior, so that their relationship would be neither inflated nor distorted,
(5) taking into account physical discipline by both the father and the mother, (6) comparing the
impact of physical punishment with verbal punishment, to see if one was associated with worse
results, (7) recording other variables to see if there could be further explanation to various
outcomes. “The time-intensive assessments of each family at each time period in the [Family
Socialization Project] data base provide high-quality measures that meet the common threats to
construct validity and internal validity that beset self-report population-based survey studies of
physical punishment.”).
357. See, e.g., Baumrind, Not Warranted, supra note 292, at 830 (saying, “studying the effects
of middle class parents’ use of spanking on child outcomes, and on parents’ later abusive behavior”
would untangle the associations confounding associations between poverty and the presence of
abuse or use of corporal punishment).
358. See Baumrind, Causally Relevant Research, supra note 21, at 10 (“This is one of the few
studies to contrast the effects of normative physical punishment with another aversive disciplinary
intervention, and to contrast the effects of ‘no spanking’ with those of ‘low frequency’ spanking.”).
359. See id. at 4 (“For theoretical reasons pertaining to Straus’ claim that any physical
punishment was harmful we chose to differentiate between parents who never spanked during the
time period and those who very seldom did, that is who had spanked the child one to three times, or
three to five times. Straus did not use planned contrasts to test his claim that any spanking was
harmful.”) (emphasis in original).
360. See, e.g., Baumrind, Discipline “Effects,” supra note 354 (conducting her study of
children ages 4, 9, and 14 years, and their parents based on 50 hours of observation and interviews);
Baumrind, Causally Relevant Research, supra note 21, at 2 (observing children in “naturalistic
settings” such as the home, classroom, and school playground).
361. See supra note 355 and accompanying text.