Smackers in retreat, says survey

The number of New Zealand parents who say they do not smack their preschool children has doubled in the past 12 years, suggesting the practice is becoming socially unacceptable.

A national survey of 612 parents and 539 caregivers with children aged five and under has found that 49 per cent of parents had not smacked their children in the past three months or used physical discipline as a way to handle misbehaviour.

A survey in 1993 found only 25 per cent of parents with under-six-year-olds, and a mere 11 per cent with children aged two to four, had never used physical punishment on under-fives.

The author of the 1993 study for the Commissioner for Children, Dr Gabrielle Maxwell, said the swing away from smacking in just 12 years was "amazing".

"I think the campaign against it has had a lot to do with it. There has been public debate, and there has been a real buy-in by parents to finding other ways. It's very pleasing."

The latest survey was conducted by Auckland's Gravitas Research for the Ministry of Social Development's three-year, $10 million public education campaign called "Strategies with Kids - Information for Parents" (Skip).

Prime Minister Helen Clark said last year that the Government would wait to see the effects of the campaign before deciding whether to repeal section 59 of the Crimes Act, which allows parents to use "reasonable" force "by way of correction towards the child".

A Herald poll in October 2003 found that 70 per cent of New Zealanders supported the present law, and other surveys have found support levels of up to 80 per cent.

But the Gravitas study has found that in practice parents are increasingly avoiding smacking even if they still believe they should have the legal right to do it.

The researchers asked parents and caregivers of children aged five and under which of 10 methods they used to deal with a child's misbehaviour, ranging from "ask them not to do it again" to "physically discipline the child, for example, smack the child".

Forty-five per cent of the parents, and 20 per cent of grandparents and other caregivers, said "physically discipline the child" was one of the methods they used.

The remaining 55 per cent of parents and 80 per cent of caregivers were then asked whether they had actually physically disciplined a child in the previous three months. This raised the total of those who either used physical discipline as a method, or had used it in the previous three months, to 51 per cent of parents and 21 per cent of caregivers.

Half of those who said it was one of their methods said they had not actually used it in the previous three months.

Two-year-olds were most likely to be smacked, and physical discipline became less likely as the children grew older and better able to understand verbal instructions.

The two biggest reasons given by parents who smacked their children were to stop misbehaviour and to teach them about safety and danger.

Dr Maxwell, a psychologist who works from home and looks after her two-year-old grand-daughter most days, said her 1993 survey found that 60 per cent of parents with two-year-olds had smacked them in the previous week.

"The hitting of two-year-old children is because it's a very frustrating age. Children are starting to explore the environment. They cause absolute havoc in your house," she said.

"They are not malleable. You haven't really begun to socialise them. They are just beginning to become people you can talk to, and parents become very frustrated."

But she said smacking two-year-olds was not the only way to protect them, and did not actually teach them safety.

"You can usually pick them up just as quickly as you can hit them," she said.

"The evidence shows that they learn much faster from being talked to or being praised for doing correct things. Usually when you hit them they get confused and don't necessarily link the punishment up with the thing that was causing the concern."

She said she had spoken to her grand-daughter "very firmly indeed and sometimes made her cry" when she did dangerous things, and the toddler had quickly learnt to stop touching certain things or going out the front gate.

The Skip programme is supporting a "toddler day out" at the Corbans Estate arts centre, 426 Great North Rd, Henderson, from 10am to 3pm this Sunday. Organiser Elaine Dyer said there would be fun activities for under-fives and a "parents nurturing tent" to help parents manage their stress and learn non-violent kinds of discipline.

Smacking's decline

* 1960s: Psychologist Jane Ritchie found only one mother out of 150 had never smacked her child.
* 1970s: Mothers who had never smacked their children increased to 10 per cent (Ritchie).
* 1980s: Mothers who had never smacked dropped again to 2 per cent (Ritchie).
* 1993: 25 per cent of parents with children aged five and under had never used physical punishment (Maxwell).
* 2005: 49 per cent of parents with children aged five and under had not smacked their children in the past three months or used physical discipline as a way to handle misbehaviour (Gravitas).