05. tbl. 99. árg. 2013
Experience of Icelandic adults of corporal punishment and abuse in childhood
Reynsla fullorðinna Íslendinga af líkamlegum refsingum og ofbeldi í æsku
Introduction: Corporal punishment and abuse of children can have a negative impact on their health and well-being. The aim is to examine on Icelandic adults, experience of corporal punishment as children, its prevalence, justification as victims, and its impact on the assessment of their upbringing.
Materials and methods: From the national population register, out of 1500 randomly selected adults 18 years and older, 977 (65%) partici-pated. In a telephone interview, they appraised their upbringing, fol- l-owed by questions regarding 5 specific forms of corporal punishment in addition to an open-ended question about other forms experienced.
Results: Out of 968 respondents, 810 (84%) regarded their upbringing as good. In total, 465 (48%) reported at least one form of corporal punishment in childhood, with spanking being the most prevalent one (29%). Respondents 30 years and older were 1.9 times more likely to have experienced corporal punishment compared to those who were younger (95% CI 1.4-2.6) and males were 1.6 times more likely to report it compared to females (95% CI 1.2-2.0). Those who had frequently been punished were significantly more likely to hold of the opinion that it had never been justified (OR=6.5; 95% CI 1.8-22.9) and were more likely to judge their upbringing to have been reasonable or bad (OR=10.2; 95% CI 4.7-21.9) compared to those who had no such experience.
Conclusion: The practice of corporal punishment of Icelandic children was significantly less prevalent among respondents born about 1980 and later compared to those born earlier. Increased public debate and awareness of children´s rights and changed ideas about their upbringing has facilitated such development.
1Directorate of Health and Reykjavík University, 2Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Iceland.
Table I. Demographic background of participants.
N | n (%) | |
Sex Male Female |
977 |
471 (48) 506 (52) |
Age (years) 18-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60- |
977
|
214 (22) 160 (17) 172 (18) 199 (20) 232 (23) |
Place of living Greater Reykjavík capital area Elsewhere in Iceland |
977 |
599 (61) 378 (39) |
Education Compulsory primary and lower secondary Upper secondary University |
964 |
276 (29) 355 (37) 333 (34) |
Civil status Married Cohabitation Single Divorced Widow/-er |
959 |
506 (53) 189 (20) 195 (20) 33 (3) 36 (4) |
Income (in 1000 ISK)* <150 150-299 300-549 550- |
792 |
174 (22) 219 (28) 306 (38) 93 (12) |
* At the time of survey, 1 euro=155 ISK; 1 US$=112 ISK
Table II. Proportion of participants with experience of corporal punishment as children.
Answered yes, % | |
Younger than 30 years (n=110) | 36 |
30-49 years (n=329) | 49 |
50-69 years (n=328) | 53 |
70+ years and older (n=98) | 52 |
Table III. Participants´experience of different forms of physical punishment.
n (%) | |||||
Form of corporal punishment |
N |
Never |
Once |
Several times | Often or very often |
Spanking | 959 | 679 (71) | 124 (13) | 134 (14) | 22 (2) |
Slapping on the cheek | 962 | 822 (85) | 77 (8) | 53 (6) | 10 (1) |
Shaking | 952 | 812 (85) | 20 (2) | 110 (12) | 10 (1) |
Slapping on the fingers | 949 | 830 (88) | 18 (2) | 91 (9) | 10 (1) |
Ear pulling and twisting | 961 | 935 (97) | 6 (1) | 14 (1) | 6 (1) |
Other | 960 | 933 (97) | 4 (1) | 14 (1) | 9 (1) |
Table IV. Participants´ judgement on their upbringing by experience of different forms of corporal punishment.
Experience of different forms of corporal punishment % (n) |
|||||
None
|
One form | Two forms | Three or more forms |
Mean of forms experienced (95% CI) |
|
Respondents who judged their upbringing as good | 58 (458) | 28 (237) | 10 (82) | 4 (29) | 0,61 (0,56-0,67) |
Respondents who judged their upbringing as reasonable | 31 (43) | 28 (38) | 28 (38) | 13 (20) | 1,34 (1,13-1,55) |
Respondents who judged their upbringing as bad | 17 (3) | 17 (3) | 22 (4) | 44 (7) | 2,47 (1,46-3,49) |