Many American parents believe that it is important to spank their children when they misbehave. Straus and Stewart (cited in Mulvaney and Mebert, 2007) found that “more than 90% of children and approximately 50% of adolescents have experienced corporal punishment at least once.” Some research on this topic has shown that corporal punishment can increase the level of children's externalizing behavior rather than decreasing it. Other research on this topic has shown the opposite: corporal punishment is not always harmful or can only be harmful when it is harsh and excessive. Researchers who found an increase in externalizing behaviors hypothesized that children might imitate their parents' harsh behavior and therefore act out more after being spanked. They also hypothesized that spanking might teach children that physical aggression is an appropriate way to get others to comply with their wishes. Another hypothesis often addressed in this research is whether race and ethnic group may have a moderating effect on the relationship between corporal punishment and increased externalizing behaviors. In an article focused on the relationship between corporal punishment and children's externalizing behaviors, Lansford, Wager, Bates, Pettit, and Dodge (2012) reported the results of their experiment on the frequency and severity of spankings and the effects of these punishments. Lansford et al. considered “externalizing behavior” to be behavior considered inappropriate by parents or authority figures and/or behavior that is defiant, delinquent, or noncompliant in nature. They considered "corporal punishment" to be the use of physical force to inflict pain on the child, but not to harm the child in order to change him... middle of paper ... a panic in one year would eventually increase to a harsher spanking the following year. They found that compared to the no-spanking group, light spanking led to a 50% increase in the risk of more severe spanking the following year. In a study by Grogan-Kaylor (2004), researchers examined the relationship between corporal punishment and antisocial behavior. behavior by analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Their goal was to use stronger statistical controls than previous researchers used to analyze this data. They also wanted to examine whether the effect of corporal punishment on children's antisocial behavior depends on the frequency of corporal punishment. Their final main hypothesis was to discover whether the race or ethnic group of the parent and child affected the impact of corporal punishment on child behavior...