Children in homes full of books and educational games are less likely to get spanked, new research shows. Recent studies have found that corporal punishment can cause significant antisocial behavioral, such as lying, cheating, and hitting, in children as they grow older. So Andrew Grogan-Kaylor of the University of Michigan and his colleague Melanie D. Otis of the University of Kentucky wanted to find out what factors, independent of others, predict whether or not a parent is likely to ‘spare the rod.’ Their analysis of answers from 800 respondents on questions about their use of corporal punishment as well as many other family issues arrived at the intellectual stimulation factor. ‘This is a little bit surprising for parenting researchers that cognitive or intellectual stuff would cross over into behavioral stuff,’ Grogan-Kaylor told LiveScience. ‘Real people may know this altogether, but researchers have tended to separate the two areas.’ Hard Facts Other studies have shown that: More than 90 percent of parents of toddlers say they have spanked their child at least once. About 61 percent of mothers of 3- to 5-year-olds had spanked their child in the past week. Boys […]