Flemington, NJ, April 19, 2010 – A new media study among 1,378 Americans revealed that among political parties, more Republicans (73%) reported spanking their children compared to Democrats (60%) and Independents (61%).

The study was conducted during April 15-19 by HCD Research using its MediaCurves.com® website, to obtain viewers’ perceptions of a news clip discussing a recent study, which suggested that spanking may cause aggression and lower IQ scores in children. To view detailed results go to: www.mediacurves.com.

Among political parties, the results indicated that Republicans believe that spanking their children is more necessary for disciplining them than Democrats and Independents. The average score for how necessary Republicans viewed spanking was a 4.0, based on a scale of 1-7, while the average necessary scores for Democrats and Independents were 3.3 and 3.4, respectively.

In addition, a slightly higher number of Republicans (89%) reported being spanked as a child compared to Democrats (87%) and Independents (86%). Despite recent study findings, the vast majority of Republicans (78%) did not think that spanking may cause aggression in children, while fewer Democrats (58%) disagreed with the findings.

Among the findings:

Please indicate how necessary you feel that it is to spank a child in order to discipline them on a scale of 1-7 where 1 represents, “Not at all necessary” and 7 represents, “Extremely necessary.”

Have you ever spanked your child or children?  

Were you ever spanked when you were a child?

Do you think spanking children causes them to be more aggressive? 

While viewing the video, participants indicated their levels of agreement by moving their mouse from left to right on a continuum. The responses were recorded in quarter-second intervals and reported in the form of curves. The participants were also asked to respond to post-viewing questions.

Editors/Reporters: For more information on the study, or to speak with Glenn Kessler, president and CEO, HCD Research, please contact Vince McGourty, HCD Research, at (908) 483-9121 or (vince.mcgourty@hcdi.net).  You can also receive updates from MediaCurves.com by following us on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/mediacurves and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flemington-NJ/MediaCurves/86691908820

HCD Research is a marketing and communications research company headquartered in Flemington, NJ.  The company's services include traditional and web-based research.  For additional information on HCD Research, access the company’s web site at www.hcdi.net or call HCD Research at 908-788-9393.  MediaCurves.com® (www.mediacurves.com) is a media measurement website that provides the media and general public with a venue to view Americans’ perceptions of popular and controversial media events and advertisements.