Less violent behaviour seen in teens where spanking is illegal

Teens may be less likely to get in fist fights when they live in countries where it is illegal for parents to spank or slap children as punishment for bad behaviour, an international study suggests. 

Researchers examined data on more than 403,000 adolescents in 88 countries that are home to almost half of the world’s teenagers. Overall, rates of physical fighting were 42 per cent lower among girls and 69 per cent lower among boys in countries with full bans on corporal punishment at home and in school than in nations without prohibitions on spanking or hitting kids. 

“Kids mimic their parents’ behaviour,” said lead author Frank Elgar, a researcher at McGill University in Montreal. 

“Corporal punishment teaches children that physical force is an acceptable way to change someone’s behaviour,” Elgar said by e-mail. “It’s a powerful lesson that carries through to their own social relationships in later life, including their own parenting styles, even men’s violence towards women.” 

While the study focused on government policies, not individual parents’ approaches to discipline, the results suggest that discouraging corporal punishment at a national level may help shape teens’ attitudes about violence and their propensity to get into physical fights, researchers note in BMJ Open. 

An estimated 17 per cent of adolescents worldwide have experienced corporal punishment at home or in school in the past month, researchers note. 

Corporal punishment is typically intended to cause pain but not physically injure children. Proponents argue that it is harmless or even beneficial to long-term health, but the practice has been linked to aggressive behaviour, mental health problems and academic and cognitive challenges, the study authors write. 

To find out if national bans might affect rates of youth violence around the globe, the researchers drew on data from two longstanding surveys of teen behaviour in 88 countries: the World Health Organisation Health Behaviour in School Aged Children study and the Global School-based Health Survey. 

The surveys included a question on whether, and how often, the respondent had been involved in a physical fight over the past 12 months. 

Thirty countries had implemented a full ban on corporal punishment at school and at home; 38 had bans only for schools; and 20 had no bans in place. 

Physical fighting was more than three times more common in boys than girls, the analysis found. It also varied widely by country, with the proportion of youth engaged in violent behaviour ranging from less than 1 per cent of girls in Costa Rica to nearly 35 per cent of boys in Samoa. 

In countries with partial bans that only applied to schools — which includes the UK, the US and Canada — fighting was not any less common among boys that it was in nations with no ban at all. But fighting was 56 per cent less common among teen girls. 

These associations held true even after accounting for other potentially influential factors, such as national wealth, the murder rate and social programmes aiming to curb teens’ exposure to violence at home and at school. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how national policies on corporal punishment directly impacted parenting choices or teen behaviour. It also did not examine the frequency or severity of any exposure to spanking or hitting. 

Even so, the results add to evidence suggesting that children’s exposure to violence at home and at school can have a lasting impact on their behaviour later in life, said Andrew Riley, a researcher at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland who was not involved in the study. 

“We know that corporal punishment increases the risk of many poor outcomes later in life: Interpersonal violence, behavioural and mental health problems, physical health problems, and poorer academic performance to name a few,” Riley said by e-mail. “The effects are probably worst when parenting practices are harsh and inconsistent overall.”