Attitudes about Domestic Violence and the Use of Harsh Discipline

Abstract

Nearly 86 000 mothers in 25 countries were interviewed between 2005 and 2010 as part of an ongoing effort supported by the United Nations Children's Fund to survey households in low- and middle-income countries about health and well-being of the children and the adults in those countries. The instrument for the third “Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey” included, for the first time as a result of efforts by Dr Patrice Engle at the United Nations Children's Fund office in New York, questions regarding parental use of physical child discipline as well as attitudes and exposure to domestic violence. This effort to collect international data that are comparable about child discipline followed a chapter in the World Report on Violence and Health in 2002 on child maltreatment that noted the lack of comparable data in communities around the world and occurred during the data collection phase of the UN Secretary-General's Report on Children and Violence that was issued in 2006. Although other international studies now exist comparing child discipline, this study is a breathtaking example of a large study, which collected simple data with great power. The discipline questions were limited, and there could be nuances in the ways that the questions were translated and the cultural context of each of the forms of discipline. However, the third “Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey” data reported by Lansford et al noted that 23% of mothers believed that it is necessary to use corporal punishment to discipline children, and 47% of the mothers thought that it was justifiable for men to hit their wives! The use of harsh discipline toward children in these 25 countries varies widely but overall, 15% of the children were subjected to harsh physical punishment in the past year. This figure is nearly 4 times greater than the percentage of children reported to have been subjected to harsh physical punishment by their parents in 2 US states and almost exactly matches the median rate of harsh physical punishment reported in another international comparison of harsh discipline. Refers to: Attitudes Justifying Domestic Violence Predict Endorsement of Corporal Punishment and Physical and Psychological Aggression towards Children: A Study in 25 Low- and Middle-Income Countries Corrected Proof, 13 January 2014 -- Jennifer E. Lansford, Kirby Deater-Deckard, Marc H. Bornstein, Diane L. Putnick, Robert H. Bradley The Journal of Pediatrics DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2013.11.060 Language: en