Research reignites the smacking your kids debate

Smacking is back in the spotlight after recent research published today showed physical punishment is ineffective in changing a child's behaviour and decreases their trust in parents.

The research, lead by the Australian Catholic University's Professor Daryl Higgins, showed this type of punishment almost doubled the risk of mental health issues like anxiety and depression for children in young adulthood and not even "a little smack" was okay.

"There was a big meta-analysis that we reviewed, that found there was no positive benefits of corporal punishment, despite beliefs parents have that it is the only way to discipline children," Professor Higgins told Today.

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"I think the most important thing is to say that it doesn't work, rather than say 'you can do it a little bit' - even though people will excuse what they think is the right way to parent, the evidence shows that it's not."

Professor Higgins' team looked at international findings on hitting kids and strategies that have been used across different countries around the globe, with 65 that have already banned corporal punishment.

"I think we need national leadership, we shouldn't just leave it up to individual states and have our federal government recognise it," he said.

"This is a public health issue, in the same way we've taken public health stands on things like the necessity of vaccines and masks in relation to the COVID-19 risks, we've had the same thing in relation to car safety in terms of legislating car seats and so forth."

Do you think smacking is an effective punishment for your kids? Should it be made illegal?

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See what else Professor Higgins had to say in the video above

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