A Survey of Some Behavioral Disorders Due to Parental Corporal Punishment in School Age Children

Family has an important role on children's personality and preparing them for future. Corporal punishment involves the application of some forms of physical pain in response to undesirable behavior for the purpose of correction or control of the child's behavior. Corporal punishment constitutes a human-rights violation and has physical and mental health consequences for children. This survey was conducted to detect and compare some behavioral disorders due to parental corporal punishment in school age children. This case-control trial deals with 240, primary school children aged 7-12 years old. These subjects were selected through cluster randomized sampling in Korramabad and divided into two (case and control) groups. Instruments for measuring data consisted of three components: 1) a questionnaire on demographic information, 2) a questionnaire on corporal punishment and, 3) a rating scale about behavioral disorder such as verbal and behavioral aggression, withdrawal, and cooperation in school. Data were analyzed by SPSS ver11. Results indicated that in 92.6% of cases the corporal punishment method was slapping. Significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of mother's educational level (p=0.001), mother's job (p=0.004), mother's child-birth number (p=0.024), verbal aggression (p=0.001), behavioral aggression (p=0.001), withdrawal (p=0.05), and cooperation (p=0.001). Results indicated that housekeeper mothers and mothers with low educational level use more corporal punishment and behavioral disorders were more in school age children who had suffered parental corporal punishment. Based on the results of this study, educating parents and families about results of corporal punishment in young children is suggested. Public health actions including training programs on alternative methods of discipline are also suggested.