PRAISE the young and they will respond, the chief executive of the ISPCC told an international seminar campaigning against physical punishment of children in Dublin yesterday. He was quoting a Gaelic proverb (Mol an oige agus tiocfaidh si) to a group of 80 child welfare specialists from all over the world gathered in University College, Dublin.
The seminar was organised by the ISPCC and Epoch Worldwide, "an informal alliance" of organisations which aim to eliminate physical punishment of children.
The seminar set the year 2,000 as the target for ending all such violence against children around the world, through education and legal reform.
A Canadian delegate, Mr James Lindfield, gave details of research which supported the "praise" approach, and illustrated the general sense of well being experienced by parents who stopped physically punishing their children and the exceptional improvement in family relationships that followed.
Mr Murray Strauss, of the University of New Hampshire, said he felt America must be "the corporal punishment capital of the world". Research there indicated that spanking of toddlers (under 3 year olds) was carried out by almost 90 per cent of parents. The figure was about 66 per cent for 3 to 5 year olds. And almost 12 per cent of 17 year olds are beaten by their parents.
"No wonder the US is such a violent society," he concluded. He produced research which showed that physically punishing children was no more effective than other techniques in altering their pattern of behaviour. But it is significant in promoting delinquency. "In fact, misbehaviour goes up among 6 to 9 year olds in proportion to the punishment they suffer."
It has been established that children who suffered such punishment were twice as likely to, severely beat siblings; twice as likely to beat up other children at school; and twice as likely to experience depression.
They are five times more likely to be involved with juvenile delinquency; were three times as likely to beat up their wives in later life; and three times as likely to beat their own children.
However, attitudes in the US are changing, with a fewer people agreeing that "a good hard spanking" is sometimes necessary to discipline a child. In Ireland, 65 per cent of people still approve of slapping children, according to a 1993 IMS survey carried out for, the ISPCC, Mr O Tighearnagh said, while 86 per cent of Irish adults had been physically abused as children.
A "rigid implement" had been used in punishing 30 per cent of them, while 29 per cent had also been bullied at school. "We in the ISPCC believe the issue of slapping is a very personal one," he said, and gave details of the campaign being conducted by the group since 1988 to have the physical punishment of children outlawed here.
"Children are citizens, and the most fundamental right of a citizen is to full bodily integrity," he continued, adding that even if corporal punishment worked "it is still (morally) wrong".
At the other end of the scale is Sweden, which along with Finland, Denmark, Norway, Austria, and Cyprus, has banned the physical punishment of children. Mr Goran Hakansson, permanent secretary to the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, spoke of the experience there, where spanking continues despite the law enacted in 1979.
