Mothers who have spanked their children in the past three years are three times more likely to use harsher forms of punishment compared with mothers who don’t spank their children, according to a new report from the Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

”In addition, increases in the frequency of spanking are associated with increased odds of abuse, and mothers who report spanking on the buttocks with an object—such as a belt or a switch—are nine times more likely to report abuse, compared to mothers who report no spanking,” said the study’s lead author, Adam J. Zolotor, MD.

Previously, a different study suggested that kids who were physically disciplined are more likely as adults to coerce partners to have sex, have unprotected sex and partake in painful and humiliating sex.

On the fence about spanking? Read RH’s “To Spank or Not To Spank”.