Reducing the prevalence of child physical abuse, as a common adverse childhood experience, could dramatically improve the well-being of children. Physical punishment (PP), also known as spanking, slapping, popping, whooping, or smacking, is defined as the “use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not injury.” PP is strongly associated with increased risk for child physical abuse. Experiencing PP places a child at risk for many behavioral, mental, and physical problems throughout life, and has been shown to be more detrimental than child physical and emotional abuse across some developmental outcomes.
In summer 2020, Prevent Child Abuse America contracted with Dr. Julia Fleckman to develop a questionnaire to assess attitudes, behaviors, and norms associated with PP. Members of the research committee of the National Initiative to End Corporal Punishment (NIECP) provided valuable feedback on the development of the survey, which utilized validated measures including attitudes toward PP, perceived injunctive PP norms, frequency of parental use of PP, and attitudes toward policies banning PP. The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Tulane University approved the survey and protocol for administration.
This report showcases findings from that survey of over 3,000 US adults to better understand attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and perceptions associated with PP. These findings largely support declining trends in PP identified in prior work and provide new insights for policy, intervention, and social norms change efforts.
Substantial evidence shows negative long-term outcomes for children who are disciplined through corporal punishment. In fact, findings indicate that children who are physically punished (i.e., spanked) have similarly negative outcomes to children that are physically abused. This helpful one-page identifies a number of strategies to promote positive parenting and discipline strategies that do not include hitting or the physical use of force with children.
In this research review, we’ll discuss a recently released special issue of the Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal on the topic of social norms and violence against children.
This review examines the American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement on corporal punishment and two research studies; one looking at bans on corporal punishment and the other looking at No Hit Zones.
