Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 10, 1995                   TAG: 9501100092
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Medium

SURVEY: MOTHERS STILL SPANK

Despite experts' advice, a lot of mothers believe spanking is a good way to discipline young children, a survey found.

``Mothers spank fairly frequently - they both believe in it and do it often,'' said Dr. Rebecca R.S. Socolar, the lead researcher and a clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Forty-two percent of the 204 mothers surveyed had spanked their young children in the week before the survey, the authors reported in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. All of the children were younger than 4.

Mothers believed more strongly in spanking for dangerous misbehavior - such as getting too close to a hot iron - than for annoying antics - such as splashing water from the bathtub onto the floor, the survey found.

Overall, mothers were more likely to spank if they had believed it appropriate to respond to misbehavior with yelling or ridicule, Socolar said.

Inner-city mothers were more likely to spank than well-to-do suburban mothers, for unknown reasons, she said.

``Mothers who had been spanked as a child both spanked more frequently and believed more strongly in spanking,'' Socolar said in a telephone interview Monday.

The survey was done at two sites in New York, where Socolar was a fellow at the time. One site was an inner-city hospital in the Bronx; the other was a private pediatrician's office in suburban Westchester County.

She said mothers were chosen because mothers almost exclusively accompanied their children at the offices where the survey was conducted.

The survey was small because money was limited, and Socolar called for more research in a larger population.

Previous studies have shown that spanking can promote aggressive behavior, hamper development of moral reasoning, reduce self-esteem and make children depressed, the researchers said.