The hard facts about smacking

The Child Development Research Unit at Nottingham University interviewed 700 British mothers when their children were 1, 4, 7, and 11 years old. The results show that smacking is common in families from all social classes, decreasing as the child gets older.

How old?

· 62 per cent of mothers smack their baby before he is 1 year old.

· 68 per cent of mothers smack their 4-year-old child up to 6 times a week.

· 33 per cent of mothers smack their 7-year-old at least once a week.

· 15 per cent of mothers smack their 11-year-old child at least once a week.

Why?

67 per cent of 4-year-olds are smacked because they disobey rules, 38 per cent because they tell lies and 58 per cent because they hit their mothers.

Where?

Smacking is common among parents in other countries too. A survey of over 3,000 sets of parents in America revealed that 90 per cent of 3-year-olds and 34 per cent of 15 to 17-year-olds are smacked on a regular basis. Research in Australia found that 81 per cent of boys and 74 per cent of girls at primary school are smacked by their parents. The same pattern is found in many other countries, including New Zealand.

But the fact that smacking is wide-spread doesn’t make it right. That is why some countries now have laws forbidding parents from smacking their children; Finland, Denmark and Norway have all followed Sweden whose Parliament approved a bill in 1979 saying:

“Children are to be treated with respect for their person and individuality and may not be subjected to corporal punishment or any other humiliating treatment.”

John Slaiks

/ from the Daily Telegraph /

SET WORK

I. Say how you understand:

smacking, to use the cane, hard facts, to do sth on a regular basis, to be subjected to sth, corporal.

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