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 percent lower among
girls and 69 percent 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' behavior," 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 behavior," Elgar said by email.
"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 percent 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 behavior, 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 behavior in 88 countries: the World Health
Organization Health Behavior in School Aged Children (HBSC) study
and the Global School-based Health Survey (GSHS).
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.
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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 behavior ranging from
less than one percent of girls in Costa Rica to nearly 35 percent of
boys in Samoa.
In countries with partial bans that only applied to schools - which
includes the UK, the U.S. and Canada - fighting wasn't any less
common among boys that it was in nations with no ban at all. But
fighting was 56 percent 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 programs aiming to curb teens' exposure to violence
at home and at school.
The study wasn't a controlled experiment designed to prove whether
or how national policies on corporal punishment directly impacted
parenting choices or teen behavior. It also didn't 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 behavior later in life, said Andrew Riley, a researcher at
Oregon Health & Science University in Portland who wasn't involved
in the study.
"We know that corporal punishment increases the risk of many poor
outcomes later in life: interpersonal violence, behavioral and
mental health problems, physical health problems, and poorer
academic performance to name a few," Riley said by email. "The
effects are probably worst when parenting practices are harsh and
inconsistent overall."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2NVrDsn BMJ Open, online October 15, 2018.
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