A smack might feel like a quick fix in a moment of parental desperation, but new research suggests the consequences could follow a child all the way to their GCSE results.
A study from University College London has found that children who are physically disciplined at home tend to perform worse academically, with researchers concluding that smacking “does no good whatsoever.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the wooden spoon brigade.
The UCL team analysed data tracking children’s development over time, looking at how discipline methods in early childhood correlated with educational outcomes in their teens. The findings pointed consistently in one direction: physical punishment is linked to lower attainment, not better behaviour.
The reasoning isn’t entirely surprising. Smacking, researchers argue, creates an environment of fear and stress rather than one where learning can thrive. Children who experience physical discipline are more likely to show signs of anxiety and reduced self-regulation, two things that don’t exactly help when you’re sitting a maths paper.
“There is no evidence that smacking improves children’s behaviour in the long term,” the research team noted, adding that its effects on emotional and cognitive development are reliably negative.
England remains one of the few places in the UK where smacking is still technically legal, provided it doesn’t leave a mark. Scotland banned it outright in 2020, and Wales followed in 2022. Campaigners have long pushed Westminster to do the same, and studies like this one tend to add fresh fuel to that argument.
Parenting charities have broadly welcomed the findings. The argument from smacking’s defenders has always been “it never did me any harm,” but that’s a difficult case to make when the data keeps pointing the other way.
It’s also worth remembering that GCSEs aren’t the only measure here. The broader picture the research paints is one of children who are less emotionally secure, less confident, and less equipped to deal with stress.
With England’s own smacking laws still under periodic review, the question now is whether findings like these will finally be enough to push Parliament off the fence.
