| Communications and Development |  |
Published by Communications and Development
The use of child physical punishment is relatively common amongst young New Zealand parents.
Also, a parent’s risk of severely assaulting a child will be influenced by both their own childhood experiences of parenting and family life as well as their current circumstances. This suggests that how we parent our children not only influences what happens to them tomorrow but also the kinds of parents they themselves may become.
These are the underlying messages from “Punitive parenting practices of contemporary young parents” published in the latest New Zealand Medical Journal. It looks at the use of physical punishment by a group of young 25 year-old parents caring for children aged between 0 and 15 years.
Principal researcher Associate Professor Lianne Woodward, from the University of Canterbury’s Department of Psychology, says the study aimed to identify risk factors that placed, younger and potentially more vulnerable, parents at an increased risk of child physical punishment/abuse.
“We found that young parents are less likely to smack or use more severe physical punishment methods if they are caring for fewer children, have low levels of financial and relationship stress, and have had positive parenting role models on which to base their own.”
Two sets of risk factors have been identified in the study that highlight those who are more vulnerable to employing more methods of severe physical punishment says Professor Woodward. “Theses include family of origin factors - or childhood family life and parenting experiences - and current levels of family stress.”
“Punitive parenting practices of contemporary young parents” found this group of young parents were on average caring for one to two children, with less than a quarter being married and nearly a third being single parents (all female). More than three-quarters of the parents reported having physically punished a child and about one in ten reported having severely physically assaulted a child in the past year, including for example, slapping on the face or head, hitting with a hard object, throwing/knocking down, choking or punching.
Having been raised in a family environment characterised by restrictive and controlling parenting seemed to be more predictive of later punitive parenting than whether or not a parent had themselves been smacked as a child – this suggests that, at least for this high risk group of parents, the overall “style” of parenting was more important than exposure to specific parenting behaviours.
“A bit worrying, are the dramatic social changes that we see in family formation patterns in this second generation of study families, with many young parents having changed partners since becoming a parent and few getting married” Professor Woodward adds.
“These young parents, mostly women, are parenting under stressful conditions with limited financial and emotional supports”.
“I believe that all parents love and want the best for their children. But as we all know, sometimes other things can get in the way. The more difficulties and challenges parents have to face and the fewer personal resources they have to deal with these, the harder it is to parent in a positive way.”
“The study shows that although recent legislation may be helpful in changing social attitudes towards the physical punishment of children, it is unlikely to be sufficient on its own to fully address New Zealand’s high rate of child physical abuse. We also need to find ways, as a community, to support parents and families to develop more effective and positive ways of disciplining their children”.
Professor Woodward emphasises that the study sample was not representative of all New Zealand parents; the parents were predominately from Christchurch and from homogenous and disadvantaged backgrounds.
Note for editors:
The data for this study were collected as part of the 25 year follow-up assessment of the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS). The CHDS is a longitudinal study of a birth cohort of young people born in the Christchurch urban region during mid 1977 and then studied at regular intervals to age 25. At age 25, all respondents who had become a parent were interviewed about their parenting practices and family circumstances, including an assessment of the use of child physical punishment/abuse.
For further information please contact:
Associate Professor Lianne Woodward
University of Canterbury
Phone: +64 3 364 2255
Email: lianne.woodward@canterbury.ac.nz