Spanking and Adult Mental Health Impairment: The case for the designation of spanking as an adverse childhood experience

This article examines whether or not spanking should be categorized as an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE), a category that also includes child abuse and is directly related to mental health problems in adulthood.

The data analysis show that spanking is similar to physical and emotional abuse. The authors recommend including spanking as an ACE, not only to help our understanding of mental health problems, but also addressed vigorously to prevent violence.