Smacking children ‘potentially’ harmful’

SMACKING and other forms of physical punishment are no more effective in instilling discipline in children than other parenting techniques, according to a new report by the Wales Centre for Public Policy.

The report – Parental Physical Punishment: Child Outcomes and Attitudes – reviews what’s known about how children are affected by physical punishment.

While there are no clear benefits to smacking, the report also finds that where research has tried to separate out the effect of smacking from other factors like family situation, socioeconomic status or wider behavioural issues, the negative impact of smacking appears to be very small.

It nevertheless states: “At the time of writing, the majority of researchers in the field make the judgement that the balance of evidence is sufficient to support the claim that all physical punishment under all conditions is potentially harmful to child development.”

Dan Bristow, director of policy and practice at the Wales Centre for Public Policy, said: “This is a topic where people have strongly-held, values-based positions. With this report, we have sought to outline what the evidence can tell us about the impact of smacking.

“It is clear that severe and persistent forms of physical punishment are harmful to child development. The impact of milder physical punishment like more occasional smacking is less clear; research shows that smacking is linked to negative outcomes, but it cannot say whether it’s their only or main cause.

“Alongside this, we have evidence that shows smacking is no more effective than other parenting techniques, either in the short or the longer term.

“It is for others to judge what all this means – and that is the decision that the Assembly will face this autumn as it debates new laws on a smacking ban.”

The Welsh Government confirmed this week that it will be legislating to remove the defence of “reasonable punishment”, currently available to parents charged with physically assaulting their children.