Spanking linked to mental disorders in adults

Those adults who were spanked or hit as kids were between two and seven per cent more likely to encounter mental issues later, said the research published in US Journal Pediatrics, CBC news reported.

"It definitely points to the direction that physical punishment should not be used on children of any age and we need to be considering that when we're thinking about policy and programmes so we can protect children from potentially harmful outcomes," said study author Tracie Afifi, Department of community health sciences at the University of Manitoba.

Between two and five per cent of disorders like depression, anxiety, bipolar, anorexis or bulimia were attributable to physical punishment as a child, the study said.

It was not established that spanking had actually caused these disorders in certain adults, only that there was a link between memories of such punishment and a higher incidence of mental problems, the study pointed out.

Excluding both sexual abuse and physical abuse that left bruises, marks or caused injury, the study defined physical punishment as pushing, shoving, slapping or hitting as a form of punishment from elders.

Afifi hopes the findings from the study that involved more than 34,000 US adults will make parents think twice about spanking.

Though spanking is outlawed in 33 countries, it is legal for parents to use physical punishment on their children in Canada and the US, it said.