JORDAN

A study of the relationship between gender and physical punishment in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand and the US, which used interviews with around 4,000 mothers, fathers and children aged 7-10, found that in Jordan 66% of girls and 80% of boys involved in the study had experienced “mild” corporal punishment (spanking, hitting, or slapping with a bare hand; hitting or slapping on the hand, arm, or leg; shaking; or hitting with an object), and 21% of girls and 31% of boys had experienced severe corporal punishment (hitting or slapping the child on the face, head, or ears; beating the child repeatedly with an implement) by someone in their household in the past month. Smaller percentages of parents believed it was necessary to use corporal punishment to bring up their child: for girls, 8% of mothers and fathers believed it was necessary; for boys, 7% of mothers and 10% of fathers believed it was necessary.

(Lansford, J. et al, 2010, “Corporal Punishment of Children in Nine Countries as a Function of Child Gender and Parent Gender”, International Journal of Pediatrics)

According to statistics from UNICEF, of girls and women aged 15-49, 90% think that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances.

(UNICEF, 2009,  Progress for Children: A report card on child protection, NY: UNICEF
www.childinfo.org/files/Progress_for_Children-No.8_EN.pdf)

A 2007 study into violence against children in Jordan found that in schools, children are subjected to ‘mild, moderate and severe’ violence. ‘Severe violence,’ defined by the study to include hitting a child with an object such as a rod, rope or cane and biting and burning the child, was the most common kind of violence, suffered by 57% of the 3,130 children who took part in the study. 50% of the children suffered ‘mild’ violence from teachers and other staff at school – ‘mild’ violence was defined to include slapping, pinching, pulling hair, pushing or shoving and twisting arms or legs. The study noted that violence against children in the home often took place in the context of ‘discipline.’ 53% of children in the study had experienced ‘mild’ violence from their parents while 34% had experienced ‘severe’ violence.

(Elayyan, K., 2007, Violence against children in Jordan study: Summary, UNICEF www.unicef.org/jordan/VAC_Study_English_FOR_SCREEN(2).pdf)