Though spanking children who misbehave has been a source of debate among child development researchers, the traditional corporal method remains popular with parents in North Carolina, according to a recent study from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

The report, published online earlier this month by Child Abuse Review, tracked corporal punishment and physical abuse trends for 3- to 11-year-olds in the U.S. through four separate national surveys conducted in 1975, 1985 and 1995 and one in 2002 in North Carolina and South Carolina.

The results showed the number of parents in the two states using an object to spank was markedly higher in 2002 than in 1995. The study also found an 18 percent decline since 1975 in the number of children who experience spanking without an object.

In an unexpected finding, the study indicates spanking rates for children ages 3 to 5 still remains high at 80 percent.

“What was really surprising was how common spanking was in children ages 3 to 5,” said Dr. Adam Zolotor, assistant professor of family medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, who led the study. “Previous analysis of this data (had) thought that spanking was declining.”

While spanking remains a relatively popular form of discipline in the U.S., another study led by Zolotor and published this month showed the practice remains controversial abroad. Twenty-four countries, most of them in Europe, have banned corporal punishment.

Spanking is still permitted across the United States, even in some school districts. Fifty-nine percent of school districts in North Carolina allow corporal punishment, according to Action for Children North Carolina, a child advocacy organization.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association have not formally come out against corporal discipline.

“I think parents get mixed messages, and parents might fall into it at the heat of the moment,” Zolotor said. “It is something that is really common in our country.”

Even though there is a “weight of evidence that shows spanking does more harm than good,” Zolotor said, parents generally against spanking can lose their cool and react to a child’s misdeed with a spanking.

The often dangerous misdeeds of 3- to 5-year-old children, along with their limited reasoning ability, may explain why they’re spanked more, he said.

“Kids between 3 and 5, they lie, they cheat, they steal,” he said. “They do things to test their limits because they’re figuring out the world.”

The study did not measure whether parents spanked or hit with objects in anger, a distinction often used by proponents of corporal discipline. Zolotor said he’s not sure corporal discipline can be used when a parent is completely calm.

“I think it’s pretty clear that most spanking happens in anger because most parents are angry when they spank their children,” he said.

But for many, the distinction is important in affirming the right of some parents to use corporal punishment to teach young children a lesson.

“It can be done in a right way and a wrong way,” said Brittany Farrell, assistant policy director at the N.C. Family Policy Council, which supports corporal discipline as a tool parents should have. “I think that’s an important distinction to be made because the point of the discipline is to teach.”

Farrell acknowledged the developmental limitations of young children and said that negative incentives are equally as important as positive ones. She questioned the idea that corporal punishment hurts children in the long run and said there are many variables that affect child development that are often linked to spanking.

“Raising kids is a really big job, and some of the results that get linked to corporal punishment (are actually) multiple factors working together,” she said.

By KATELYN FERRAL