There is bunch of research that child abuse including spanking is bad for a person mental and physical health.

That is why the American Academy of Pediatrics came out with a strongly worded statement against all corporal punishment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/health/spanking-harmful-study-pediatricians.html

Despite all these research, millions of parents still think spanking and beatings with belts and other objects is ok.

Yesterday, Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa who is the biggest star in College Football talked about how his dad would beat him with a belt growing up for both misbehavior and bad plays on the football field.

https://sports.yahoo.com/tua-tagovailoa-belt-involved-father-disciplined-201125881.html

Large number of respondents in the comment sections of the articles about this revelation gave responses indicating their beliefs that beating children with belts was not only ok but a good parenting strategy. The screen caps below are a good sample of the logic behind many of these opinions:

These comments represent many still common held beliefs. The last comment is the one I hear most often when talking about this issue in real life. People say things like “we were all spanked or beatin with belts growing up but we all turned out ok”

But are the current people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s+ really ok? Unfortunately, research shows high rates of suicides, drug overdose, alcohol problems, and mental health problems in these groups.

Here are links to a few articles highlighting these problems:

https://www.kgw.com/mobile/article/news/nation-world/worse-than-opioids-alcohol-deaths-soar-among-the-middle-aged-women/507-615574973

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/it-s-not-just-chris-cornell-suicide-rates-highest-among-n762221

https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/news/20181129/cdc-opioids-suicides-drive-life-expectancy-drop

Lets not pretend that current adults are “ok”. And let’s not pretend like there is not a huge amount of research that spanking and other forms of child abuse can lead to mental health issues and other problems when people become adults including suicide and substance abuse. Below are a few examples of studies that show this:

https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/article182779656.html

https://news.umich.edu/childhood-spankings-can-lead-to-adult-mental-health-problems/

https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/Spanking-Linked-to-Mental-Illness.aspx

https://www.ajc.com/news/national/case-against-spanking-study-finds-leads-mental-illness/hEs2TayjW6qJSNneVplrRI/

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/spanking.aspx

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3768154/

It is up to use as early educators, to educate parents and the general public about alternatives to spanking and similar abuse.

Here a few articles with alternatives to spanking and similar child abuse:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2719514/

http://stopspanking.org/resources/

http://www.pyramidmodel.org/resources/educators-families/families/

https://www.cdc.gov/parents/essentials/consequences/index.html