!!WARNING!! Content may be sensitive to younger viewers. !!WARNING!!

Hello, dear Menewsha members. I have a subject in question, and I would like to hear your opinions on it. As my warning states, this may be a sensitive subject. (This post might even be removed, in which case I will have learned that some things are best asked away from forum posts.) But it is one that I am most curious about, and I'm sure I'm not alone on that.

When I was an elementary school aged child, my parents would give my sisters and I spankings as punishment when we did wrong. Sometimes they would use their hand because it was there at the moment, but more often it was a belt. We would have to lean over the side of the bed- or chair if they were impatient- and have however many slaps to the bottom and thighs. Now afterwords- almost immediately- Mom and Dad would pick us up and hug us, telling us that they punished us because they loved us. What did this translate to in a child's brain? The people that love me hurt me. In my opinion, this also causes Stockholm syndrome. Now I'm no doctorate holder, and neither is my friend who informed me I show many symptoms of that syndrome. But the internet holds a lot of information and he's like me; takes up random research topics here and there. So he has a good chance of being right.
My question to you Menewshians: Does physical, mental, and or emotional punishment on children cause worse problems down the road?