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DISCIPLINING CHILDREN: RESEARCH WITH PARENTS IN SCOTLAND

F. Conclusions

This final section of the report draws out and summarises some of the key themes emerging from the research.

Situating discussions about discipline and chastisement

The first point to make is that to understand parental views and behaviours in relation to physical chastisement one needs to examine and appreciate the broader context of contemporary parenting and family life. It is clear that many parents feel that they are dealing with a range of competing pressures and that the tasks of parenting and disciplining are more difficult — and more closely judged and scrutinised — than for previous generations. In this context, the prospect of legislation against physical chastisement is seen by parents not only as depriving them of a ‘coping strategy’ but as failing to address more immediate pressures of parenting and work-life balance.

Inter-generational continuities and change

Two points are worth making in relation to this theme. The first is that, regardless of the legislative position, we should not assume that attitudes and behaviours remain static over time. The research provides plenty of evidence to suggest that, in the course of a generation or so, there have been significant changes in the acceptability of many forms of physical chastisement and that, generally, such punishments are less common and less severe than they once were. But secondly, it also needs to be acknowledged that the specific use of smacking remains very common — up to eight out of ten children in the 3 to 5 age group have been smacked within the past year and around 1 in 5 in the last week. In other words, smacking remains deeply embedded in Scottish parenting culture.

Ambivalence in attitudes towards smacking

If one is to accept at face value the media coverage (and, indeed, some of the existing research) on this topic, it would appear that the population divides neatly into those who oppose and those who support the use of smacking. In fact, this study has revealed a much more complex picture. Only a relatively small minority of Scottish parents have a strongly principled positive commitment to its use. By far the largest group express a much more muted and ambivalent support for it — one that recognises that smacking can have negative consequences and that there are better ways of dealing with most situations, but nevertheless concludes that sometimes children simply ‘need a smack’. This again suggests that — regardless of public views of the proposed legislation — there are potential points of contact for policies and arguments that seek to promote ‘positive alternatives’ to physical chastisement.

Smacking situations

The research tells us a number of important things about typical situations in which parents smack. First, contrary perhaps to popular perception, parental use of smacking is overwhelmingly confined to private space. Only around 3% of incidents appear to take place in a genuinely public setting, such as at the supermarket or the play park. Given that parents say that they often already feel constrained in their use of physical punishments in public, but maintain that how they choose to parent at home is largely a matter for them, the scope for legislation to act on behaviour appears to be minimised.

Secondly, despite the fact that in seeking to defend or justify the practice parents frequently refer to the use of smacking to signal danger, the survey data indicate that, even for younger children, this was a factor in only around a third of incidents and that smacking is much more commonly used as a straightforward punishment for persistent or challenging behaviour.

Thirdly, although many parents hold that smacking should be used only in a controlled, measured and distanced fashion, typically, it is a much more highly charged interaction which often leaves parents feeling guilty or upset. Although the construction of smacking by parents as a tactic of ‘last resort’ gives the misleading impression that no other disciplinary choices are open to them, it nevertheless captures the sense of parents ‘at the end of their tether’. Again, one has to ask how amenable such responses are likely to be to modification through law alone.

Finally, the use of smacking in this context could be read as a way of parents reasserting power and control. It is worth noting, however, that — whatever the reality of the situation — parents themselves may actually feel powerless. Along with their perception of the degree of force used, this may partly explain why most parents do not make a connection between abuse and their own behaviour and why they are resistant to the idea that their behaviour needs to be subject to external regulation.

Understanding of and attitudes towards the law

Perhaps the most striking fact about public awareness and understanding of the current debates — apart from the sheer degree of confusion that recent media coverage has engendered — is that more than half of parents in Scotland believe it already to be illegal to smack either a child of any age or a child below a particular age. There was little evidence, however, that this belief had impacted on their behaviour.

When the current legislative position and the proposed changes were explained, around a half of parents indicated that they would support a ban on smacking if limited to children aged two and under. Whilst there was some evidence that the introduction of the legislation might reinforce an existing reluctance on the part of parents to smack their children in public places, most parents who currently smack indicated that they would continue to do so in their own homes if they thought it appropriate.

There was, however, much wider support for the other aspects of the legislation — relating to shaking, hitting around the face or head or use of an implement. Parents are not only much less likely to use such methods, they see them much more clearly as ‘abusive’. As long as a majority of parents see smacking as part of the standard repertoire of ‘normal’ or non-abusive parenting, it is unlikely that any proposals that draw on themes of prohibition, policing and enforcement will find widespread support.

Parenting culture, discipline and the state

On this note, what can we conclude about the current state of Scottish parenting culture in relation to the issue of discipline? In discussion of these issues, parents were typically less concerned with children’s rights (the starting point for most anti-smacking arguments) than with an anxiety to protect the parental right to be able to choose how to discipline one’s own children. If the hope is that the introduction of legislation may act as a catalyst for cultural change, it will be important to understand — and address - the attitudes and beliefs that fuel current parental opposition. The above findings suggest that the legislation has the potential, at a time of heightened expectations about parenting, to be seen as a mechanism for reducing parental control without offering positive supports. A key message suggested by the research, therefore, is that any legislation needs to be explained and presented in a way which acknowledges the difficulties and pressures faced by contemporary parents and which situates issues of discipline in the broader context of support for families and questions of work-life balance.

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