Correlation does not equal causation

Once again, we have another study that tells us how bad spanking is supposed to be. Money quote:

"The odds of a child being more aggressive at age 5 if he had been spanked more than twice in the month before the study began increased by 50%," says Taylor. And because her group also accounted for varying levels of natural aggression in children, the researchers are confident that "it's not just that children who are more aggressive are more likely to be spanked."

Really? How so? Why are they so confident? Do parents naturally spank well-behaved, non-aggressive children or is it more typical that the aggressive child gets spanked more often?

Someone ought to ask grandma. Grandma's kids didn't have high suicide rates. Grandma's kids weren't brats who thought the world revolved around them. What was it that grandma did differently? John Rosemond has a great book on this subject: Parenting by The Book: Biblical Wisdom for Raising Your Child. Even if you don't believe the Bible, it shows how a centuries-proven basis for raising children was abandoned and why we are worse off because of it.