49.9% of respondents to a 2009 survey of 1,000 adults believed that corporal punishment should never be used. This was a slight increase compared to an identical 2005 survey of 994 adults, when 47.2% said that corporal punishment should never be used. 34.8% of respondents in 2009 said that corporal punishment “should not be used in general but in certain situations it is justifiable” and 10.9% felt that corporal punishment was acceptable “if the parent believes that it will be effective”. The studies in 2005 and 2009 also examined adults’ perceptions of the prevalence of corporal punishment.
(Vitosha Research, 2009, Physical Punishment in Child-Rearing in Bulgaria www.canee.net/files/Omnibus research Bulgaria 2009.pdf)
Part of the Childhood Without Abuse project, which includes studies carried out in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, and Ukraine in 2005 and 2009. www.canee.net/bulgaria/research_on_the_problem_of_child_abuse_in_eastern_europe
A 2009 survey of 202 teachers in primary schools in Sofia found that 82% belived that corporal punishment is humiliating for the child and 74% believed that it meant that “the parents are not good at rearing children”. 41% of respondents felt that the use of “spanking” as a punishment would justify intervention by a third party. In an identical survey of a similar sample in 2005, only 30% believed this. 46% of respondents in 2009 believed that more than 50% of children in Bulgaria experience “spanking”. In 2005, 51% of respondents believed this.
(Nobody’s Children Foundation et al, 2009, Sofia teachers’ attitudes toward child abuse www.canee.net/files/Teachers studies Bulgaria 2009.pdf)
Part of the Childhood Without Abuse project, which includes studies carried out in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, and Ukraine in 2005 and 2009. www.canee.net/bulgaria/research_on_the_problem_of_child_abuse_in_eastern_europe