Crossing the line from physical discipline to child abuse: how much is too much?

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper was to better differentiate physical discipline, corporal punishment, and physical child abuse based on samples drawn from the United States.
METHODOLOGY: The American literature was examined to differentiate these three constructs, first on such dimensions as severity, intention, and child effects; and second on key contextual or environmental factors empirically associated with higher rates of violent behavior in families. Third, normative data on parental spanking frequencies were summarized to better operationalize patterns of physical discipline among abusive and nonabusive parents.
RESULTS: Five articles that met selection criteria revealed that abusive parents spanked their children more often than did nonabusive parents. Aggregated data from nonabusive parents were used to compute a continuum or "normal range" of daily spanking frequencies from 0 to 5.73 (M = 2.5) times in 24 hours.
CONCLUSION: While further research is needed to address spanking intensity, severity, and context, results of the research suggest that "relative exposure" to spanking may be an additional risk marker for abuse when considered with other known indicators or risk factors.