What do children tell us about physical punishment as a risk factor for child abuse?

• Author: Dobbs, Terry

Abstract

This paper discusses children's views of family discipline and possible implications for policymakers. In 2004, 80 New Zealand children, between five and 14 years of age, took part in research eliciting their views on family discipline. In response to questions on family discipline children spontaneously revealed concerning levels of the frequency and severity of physical punishment, some of which would be identified as child abuse using any threshold. Children's reports of the context in which physical punishment was delivered by parents was also of concern. Many children reported high levels of confusion when trying to link their own views of physical punishment with the actions of their parents.

INTRODUCTION

Gaining knowledge of children's views on family discipline is important to develop effective discipline practices, and to gain a balanced perspective on the controversial policy issue of how the state should better protect children from harm (Dobbs et al. 2006). Adults debate the best methods of disciplining children and their views influence law and public policies, but children's voices are not heard. Holden (2002:593) argues that "investigating discipline through the eyes of children rather than adults is needed. To better explain how discipline affects children now and in the future it is important to understand how children react to the disciplinary incident".

The use of physical punishment as a form of family discipline is of particular interest in this study, since it is a commonly used but contentious form of family discipline. While most of the general population may agree that harsh physical punishment is harmful to children and can be easily defined as abusive, many argue that there is a distinct difference between parents using physical punishment and child abuse, and that there is no association between the two. The main issues or justifications for its use are that physical punishment is not related to child abuse because physical punishment is used only as the last resort, physical punishment comprises "a loving tap", parents administer physical punishment in a climate of control and warmth, and physical punishment is an effective discipline method that does children no harm. This paper will in part present 80 children's views on these issues.

The aim of this study was to examine the meaning of family discipline and physical punishment and the context in which it takes place, from children's perspectives. The methodology attempts to put children in the role of experts about their own experiences in family life, which has the advantage of placing children's experience in context.

STUDY DESIGN

Eighty children aged between five and 14 years of age participated in the study between April and September 2004. The criteria for children to participate in the study were that they had no known or alleged history of child abuse or neglect and that they had sufficient verbal skills to participate in a focus group discussion. The children were selected from schools in five different areas of New Zealand reflecting the diverse socioeconomic and ethnic make-up of New Zealand. Ten schools were selected in all, two from each area. There were slightly more boys (n = 43) than girls (n = 37) in the sample, (see Figure 1), and the children came from three age groups: 5-7 years, 9-11 years and 12-14 years.

Children were recruited through their parents with the help and consent of school principals. Parents, who were approached by the principals, gave consent for their child's participation. In addition to gaining formal written consent from children, the researcher explained to the children when she first met them who she was, the purpose of the study, and the topic that was going to be discussed. The children were given an information sheet as part of this explanation and were told that their parents had agreed to their participation but that they did not have to participate. Confidentiality and safety procedures were explained to the children by the researcher and within their consent forms.

Splodge (a fictional alien from outer space) was introduced to the children (5-11 years) as being very curious about life on Earth. They were told that Splodge did not know much about life on Earth and wanted to know about lots of things. Splodge was especially interested to know about family discipline and thought that children would be the best people to ask. The children were asked if they could help

Splodge by answering the questions in the Splodge storybook. Spike was introduced to the older children (12-14 years) as having just landed on earth from the planet Nostro to complete a homework assignment. The homework assignment was about what children on Earth think about family discipline. The older children were asked if they could assist Spike in completing the homework assignment by answering some questions. The questions Spike asked were the same as those asked by Splodge. Both presentations were adapted from the 1998 Willow and Hyder study. The focus group discussions were 60 minutes long on average. The discussions were audiotaped and later transcribed and analysed thematically.

FINDINGS

This paper summarises selected findings from the 80 children's views and experiences of family discipline. The full results are reported elsewhere (Dobbs 2005a, Dobbs 2005b). Not every child answered every question so the numbers and percentages reported represent those children who did answer a particular question. We have to be cautious in our interpretation of these findings of children's explanations of concepts and events to a fictional character. These questions were asked about children in general, rather than their own individual experiences. On the other hand, the children's verbatim responses indicate that they are generally talking about their own subjective experiences within their families (Dobbs et al. 2006).

To find out what children's definitions of family discipline were, and the range of parental discipline techniques used within families when children transgressed, children were asked to explain to Spike or Splodge what children "should" and "shouldn't" do at home. Children reported that things they should do included chores like doing the dishes, making the bed, clearing the table and mowing the lawns. Things they should not do included verbal and physical aggression, such as using swear words, pinching or kicking siblings, or making fun of them. Other things reported by children were not playing with fire (and other unsafe activities) and not meeting strangers alone.

When asked what happened when children did things they should not, a surprising number of children reported that many parents responded by using physical punishment. This question was very open-ended and the use of physical punishment had not been discussed by the researcher, or by Spike or Splodge. As can be seen from Figure 4 the majority of children (except for the 9-11-year-olds) said that the parental discipline consisted of some kind of physical punishment.

"You get a smack in the mouth." (seven-year-old boy)

"A smack on the butt and sent to your room." (10-year-old boy)

"You get a clip on the ear." (10-year-old girl)

"Sometimes my sister drops something like really valuable or she drops a really new bottle of milk and she gets yelled at or gets hit around the head." (11-year-old girl)

In addition to physical...