Los Angeles: Being spanked as a child is linked to having a lower IQ, according to a study presented at the International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Trauma in San Diego.
The relationship between spanking and intelligence is found in children around the world, said the lead author of the study, University of New Hampshire professor Murray Straus.
Children in the United States who were spanked had lower IQs - by 2.8 points to 5 points - than those who were not spanked, Straus found.
Straus studied 806 children ages 2 to 4 and 704 children ages 5 to 9. Both groups were retested four years later. How often parents spanked influenced IQ score. "The more spanking, the slower the development of the child's mental ability," Straus said. "But even small amounts of spanking made a difference."
Straus and his team looked at practices in 32 countries by surveying 17,404 university students. They found a lower average IQ in nations in which spanking was more prevalent.
