engleski

Children's views on (the legal ban of) corporal punishment

In Croatia, corporal punishment is prohibited by law since 1999. However, on a representative sample of thirteen-years-old children and their parents Pecnik and Tokic (2011) found that over two thirds of parents have used corporal punishment and a quarter of parents approve of it. In view of the mediational role of attitudes in intergenerational transmission of corporal punishment (Bower-Russa, 2005), the purpose of this study was to explore thirteen-year-olds' attitudes towards corporal punishment and its legal ban. Qualitative method was used in order to facilitate the expression of children's own understandings. In 16 schools throughout Croatia, thirteen-year-olds were invited to write essays on a range of topics, including the legal ban of corporal punishment. Content analysis of 95 essays on this topic revealed that 55% essays expressed negative attitude to corporal punishment. The remaining essays provided justifications for parental use of corporal punishment (23%) or both arguments against and in favor of corporal punishment (20%). An attitude to legal ban of corporal punishment was expressed in 76 of the essays. While 67% of these essays approved of it, the rest contained disapproving (25%) or ambivalent (8%) attitudes towards the legal ban of corporal punishment. Children's views were related to parental beliefs about corporal punishment and their support for a third party intervention if parent hits a child (Pecnik and Tokic, 2011) and discussed with a reference to meaning-making in parent-child transactions (Kuczynski and Parkin, 2006). Results shed light on the child perspectives which may contribute to intergenerational (dis)continuity of corporal punishment.

children’s views; attitudes to corporal punishment; legal ban of corporal punishment; essays on corporal punishment; parental practices; qualitative method

nije evidentirano