Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2000 Child Outcomes of Nonabusive and Customary Physical Punishment by Parents: An Updated Literature Review Robert E. Larzelere 1 This article updates the only previous systematic literature review of child outcomes of nonabusive and customary physical punishment by parents. The outcomes differ by methodo- logic, child, and subcultural factors as well as by how the physical punishment was used. All six studies that used clinical samples (including four randomized clinical studies) and all three sequential-analysis studies found beneficial outcomes, such as reduced noncompliance and fighting, primarily when nonabusive spanking was used to back up milder disciplinary tactics in 2- to 6-year olds. Five of eight longitudinal studies that controlled for initial child misbehavior found predominantly detrimental outcomes of spanking. However, those detrimental outcomes were primarily due to overly frequent use of physical punishment. Furthermore, apparently detrimental outcomes have been found for every alternative disci- plinary tactic when investigated with similar analyses. Such detrimental associations of fre- quent use of any disciplinary tactic may be due to residual confounding from initial child misbehavior. Specific findings suggest discriminations between effective and counterproduc- tive physical punishment with young children. More research is needed to clarify the role of spanking and alternative disciplinary tactics in control system aspects of parental discipline. KEY WORDS: physical punishment; parental discipline. Few social scientific topics involve such sharp contradictions as does parental spanking. Consider the following examples: ● About 94% of American 3- and 4-year olds have been spanked by a parent at least once during the past year (Straus & Stewart, 1999). Yet most clinical child psychologists would never suggest parental spanking, and one-third consider such a suggestion always unethical (Hyman, 1997; Schenck, Lyman, & Bodin, 2000). ● Several countries have banned all parental spanking, and others are considering such a ban. Yet if spanking were being evaluated as a psy- chological intervention, it would qualify as 1 Psychology Department, Munroe–Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Girls and Boys Town. Corre- spondence concerning this article should be sent to Robert E. Larzelere, Psychology Department, Munroe–Meyer Institute, 685450 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198-5450. Email: rlarzelere@unmc.edu. 199 1096-4037/00/1200-0199$18.00/0  2000 Plenum Publishing Corporation ‘‘probably efficacious’’ (Lonigan, Elbert, & Johnson, 1998). ● Social scientists generally make sensitivity to cultural differences a top priority. Yet African- American families are often denigrated for spanking, even though most relevant research finds that moderate spanking has benign or beneficial outcomes in African Americans (Deater-Deckard & Dodge, 1997, and 11 com- mentaries; Gunnoe & Mariner, 1997; Whaley, 2000). ● A large number of social scientists consider the mildest spanking to be more harmful than alter- native disciplinary tactics. Yet the only system- atic review of nonabusive physical punishment found little evidence of differential harmfulness in direct comparisons with alternative disciplin- ary tactics (Larzelere, 1996). Never before have social scientists advocated a total ban on a practice this widespread. Does the