Melbourne, Feb 8 (ANI): Smacking could be helpful in disciplining kids - provided delivered in the correct way, say experts.

According NurtureShock, a US bestseller penned by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, smacking is essential in child-rearing.

Citing a long-term study by Duke University's Dr Kenneth Dodge, the authors said that the way in which parents deliver a smack would result in either an aggressive or a passive child.

With African-American families in the study, the more children were smacked, the less aggressive they became.

In white families, however, smacking was saved for the worst offences - and often when parents were angry.

Merryman insists that the effect of smacking was based on its delivery: that screaming at a child out of anger can be worse than a calm, light smack.

I'm not saying either is good - it's the fact that the parent has lost control that is most upsetting to kids, the Daily Telegraph quoted as saying.

Parents are the ones they are supposed to follow.

It's not a parenting manual or advice book. What we really want is to introduce new ways of thinking and new ways to approach child development.

By focusing on the scientists, it's a way . . . to have new conversations about society's approaches to raising kids, she added. (ANI)