Smacking children could lead to lower GCSE grades, study suggests

Smacking children as a form of punishment could result in lower school grades or lead to riskier teenage behaviour, a study has found. Researchers from the University College London (UCL) studied the impact physical punishment had on 19,000 children born in the UK between 2000 and 2002 at the ages of three, five and seven. They observed that smacking "does no good whatsoever" and have called for England and Northern Ireland to outlaw it, in line with Scotland and Wales. The Department for Education in England said the government had no plans to change the law on smacking, but that the safety and wellbeing of children was a government priority. Lead researcher, associate Prof Anja Heilmann, said the research found smacking "does not help children and all the effects that we did find were in the direction of a harmful outcome". As part of the research into the 19,000 children, the team reviewed 7,559 GCSE students in England against the National Pupil Database to determine how they scored in their exams. It observed that those who had been smacked saw the likelihood of them failing to get five pass grades (A*-C) at GCSE level, including English and Maths, increase by 5.7 percentage p