Expert says attitudes about discipline changing with each generation
Four decades ago, the vast majority of Americans — 94 percent — favored the use of spanking, telling pollsters it was sometimes necessary.

But now, polls show closer to half of Americans feel that way, said Dr. Murray Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire.

Straus said his research shows the vast majority of parents of toddlers still spank, but he thinks people’s changing attitudes and the growing amount of information available on alternative methods of discipline will ultimately persuade many to stop. He said fewer people are hitting older children than they did in the past.

“It’s going to come into effect for toddlers, too,” he said…

Straus found that although there were demographic differences among parents who spanked older children, more than 90 percent of all parents of small children — regardless of age, race, religion or socioeconomic status — have at some point spanked, hit, slapped or used some other form of physical punishment.

Source: Contra Costa Times
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/politics/16560176.htm