Such discipline does not hurt youngsters' social or emotional development, the researchers reported.

"A lot of people out there advocate that any spanking at all is detrimental, and that's not what we found," said study co-author Elizabeth Owens from the Institute of Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley. "We're not advocating this is a strategy that should be used with kids, but we object to people wanting to ban it when we see no evidence that it's harmful."

The study was being presented at a meeting in San Francisco of the American Psychological Association. ...