Your Family: Jul. 29, 2002

BAD BEHAVIOR Spanking may be an effective way to get a child to behave right away, but research from the National Center for Children in Poverty warns that it could lead to even more severe behavioral problems in the future. Psychologist Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff analyzed 88 different studies on corporal punishment and found that the more often or harshly a child was hit, the more likely the youngster was to grow up to be aggressive, antisocial or abusive toward his or her own kids.

WORKING MOMS A report in the journal Child Development says the children of mothers who return to work full-time before their kids are 9 months old score slightly lower on cognitive- development tests at age 3 than kids with moms who stay at home longer. The Columbia University researchers who conducted the study say the gap can be bridged if working moms are responsive to their baby's needs and have high-quality child care.

TOO MUCH HYGIENE Cleaner is not always better, according to a report published in Archives of Disease in Childhood. A study at the University of Bristol England followed 11,000 kids for more than three years. Researchers found that young children who were bathed or washed more than twice a day were more likely to have severe eczema or asthma, suggesting that too much cleanliness inhibits a child's natural immune responses to everyday bacteria. --By Lisa McLaughlin