Violent Discipline Not Uncommon

A UNICEF publication, Inequities in Early Childhood Development: What the Data Say, reports on detailed research conducted on early childhood practices in 31 countries.  A focus of the study on how children are disciplined came up with disturbing findings.  

The report offered this statement about the impact of violent discipline (including psychological aggression and physical or corporal punishment):  "According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children should be protected from all forms of violence while in the care of parents or other caregivers.  But caregivers themselves are often the perpetrators of such violence in their attempts to discipline young children.  Studies have shown that exposing children to violent forms of discipline has harmful consequences that children may carry into adulthood; these consequences vary according to the nature, extent, and severity of exposure."

The study found that violent forms of discipline are extremely common.  The percentage of children 2 – 4 years old who experience such forms of violence ranged from 41% in Bosnia and Herzegovina to 94% in Vietnam.

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