By the time Jorge Cuartas began combing through thousands of studies, he already knew what the science in high-income countries had long suggested: spanking, slapping, and shaking children doesn’t help them grow. But a question lingered in the background — what about the rest of the world?
For years, the so-called “cultural normativeness hypothesis” cast a shadow over efforts to ban corporal punishment worldwide. It suggested that in countries where disciplining children through physical violence is a social norm, the harms might not be as severe — or might not exist at all.
Now, Cuartas and an international team of researchers have delivered clarity. In a sweeping meta-analysis published today in Nature Human Behaviour, they examined 195 studies covering 92 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and found no evidence that physical punishment ever helps children. In fact, they found quite the opposite.
“The consistency and strength of these findings suggest that physical punishment is universally harmful to children and adolescents,” said Cuartas, an assistant professor of applied psychology at New York University.
A Universal Pattern of Harm
The research team analyzed nearly 1,500 separate results from studies conducted between 2002 and 2024, investigating how physical punishment relates to 19 different life outcomes. These ranged from mental health and academic achievement to violent behavior and substance use.
Physical punishment was linked to negative outcomes in 16 of the 19 categories studied. Children who were hit by caregivers were more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and aggression. They did worse in school. They were more likely to use drugs and become victims — or perpetrators — of violence later in life.
Not a single positive outcome was observed.
A Universal Effect
One of the most significant aspects of this study is how decisively it rebuts the idea that the harms of corporal punishment might be limited to wealthy nations.
Researchers found that the detrimental effects appeared across all world regions, from sub-Saharan Africa to South Asia to Latin America. It made no difference whether a country had laws against corporal punishment or whether such practices were deeply embedded in culture. In every context, hitting children predicted worse outcomes.
The findings are particularly urgent for LMICs, where prevalence remains high. Over 60% of children in these regions are physically punished by their caregivers, compared with just 18% in places like Canada.
“Children living in LMICs already face additional contextual adversities,” the study notes, such as poverty and exposure to violence. Physical punishment, it suggests, adds another layer of risk and life adversity.
Importantly, the study drills down into the data. The authors explored whether the severity or timing of punishment made a difference. They found that outcomes worsened when physical punishment occurred during adolescence, rather than early childhood. Severe punishment (such as hitting with objects) also predicted stronger negative effects than milder forms like spanking.
But even when adjusting for socioeconomic differences, study design, and potential confounding factors, the link between physical punishment and negative outcomes remained strong. When parents or children reported being hit, it consistently correlated with worse mental health, weaker relationships, and lower academic performance.
The study also compared physical punishment with other disciplinary approaches. While psychological aggression (like yelling or threatening) also showed harmful effects, more constructive strategies — such as reasoning, removing privileges, or positive reinforcement — did not.
An End to Violence Against Children
In 2006, the United Nations Secretary General called for a global ban on all forms of corporal punishment. Since then, 65 countries have passed full or partial bans. Most are high-income nations. This study may add momentum to the growing push for legal reforms in LMICs.
“More research is needed to identify effective strategies for preventing physical punishment on a global scale and ensuring that children are protected from all forms of violence,” said Cuartas.
While the study doesn’t make causal claims — ethically, researchers can’t randomly assign children to be hit or not — it builds on decades of evidence and uses sophisticated statistical techniques to account for confounding factors.
Even when the analysis focused only on studies with the strongest controls, the conclusions held.
For many policymakers and educators, especially in contexts where corporal punishment remains the norm, this study is likely to be a wake-up call.
In developmental science, few findings are so consistent across cultures, methodologies, and generations. Yet here, the message is unmistakable.
Hitting children — whether in a Lagos classroom, a village in Bangladesh, or a home in rural Guatemala — does not make them stronger, smarter, or more obedient. It makes them hurt.
And for researchers like Cuartas, it’s time to move past asking whether corporal punishment is harmful.
The answer is yes. The question now is how we stop it.
