Australian parents are more open to smacking their kids than parents in other high-income countries, according to a new study.
Dr Carolina Gonzalez led the study, which compared Australian attitudes to those found in Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK.
Australian parents reported the highest level of acceptability of corporal punishment of children, which Gonzalez said was in defiance of the strengthening push to ban smacking.
“The concern behind this result is that research shows parents who think corporal punishment is an effective and acceptable discipline strategy are significantly more likely to use it,” Gonzalez said.
“As parents, we don’t think it’s okay for our children to be hit by a peer or a stranger, so why should causing pain to your child feel fine when you are the parent?”
The research, which involved more than 6700 parents of children aged two to 12, showed that 62.5 per cent of Australian adults had experienced corporal punishment three times or more before they turned 18.
And 53.7 per cent of Australian parents had used corporal punishment at least once.
“Australia is an individualistic country, and there may be an emphasis on parents managing their children’s behaviour on their terms rather than engaging in public discussion about this being a public concern,” Gonzalez said.
Of the eight countries examined in the study, only Germany and Spain have banned corporal punishment completely.
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Others have banned it in some areas, such as education, health, and justice settings.
Gonzalez, a mother of two and a clinical psychologist who has been conducting research on parenting for the last seven years, said that while banning corporal punishment would be beneficial and may change attitudes, eradicating it in Australia would need to go beyond legislation.
“In our study, parents from Germany and Spain, where corporal punishment has been totally banned, did not consistently show less acceptance and use of corporal punishment and other coercive strategies when compared to parents from other countries,” she said.
Gonzalez said parents needed to be educated about the consequences of corporal punishment, rather than judged.
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She said there was a great deal of evidence to support the stance that corporal punishment was ineffective.
“Our children deserve to grow up in homes free of violence,” she said.
“Broad public campaigns, initiatives to break historical and cultural patterns and better systems for supporting parents will help bring a stop to the corporal punishment of children.”