PHILIPPINESPHILIPPINESA 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 the Philippines 71% of girls and 77% 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 9% of girls and 8% 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, 13% of mothers and 16% of fathers believed it was necessary; for boys, 20% of mothers and 15% 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)
A 2010 survey of 270 grade-six students with an average age of 12 found that 61.1% of them had experienced physical punishment at home. 74.5% of those who experienced physical punishment had been pinched, and 49.7% beaten. 13.9% had been slapped, 3.6% kicked and 3% punched. Boys were more likely to be physically punished than girls, with 64.8% of boys experiencing beating compared to 40.9% of girls. The rate of pinching was similar for boys and girls. Mothers were reported to inflict more physical punishment than fathers, with mothers solely responsible for pinching, while both mothers and fathers beat children. The most common reasons for being physically punished were disobedience, cited by 35.6% of children who had been punished, and “pasaway” (35.3%) or being naughty, which included causing younger siblings to cry, interrupting adult conversations by what was perceived to be meaningless or disrespectful chatter, play-fighting with other children or siblings, making noises and disrupting order in the house. 32.9% of the children said that they “felt nothing” after being physically punished, while 25% were angry, 14.5% felt lonely or sad and 7.2% felt hatred.
(Sanapo, M. and Nakamura, Y., 2010, “Gender and Physical Punishment: The Filipino Children’s Experience”, Child Abuse Review, published online in Wiley Online Library DOI: 10.1002/car.1148)
A large scale comparative study (World Studies of Abuse in the Family Environment (WorldSAFE)) which involved surveys with over 14,000 mothers of children aged under 18, carried out between 1998 and 2003, examined parental discipline in Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Philippines, and the United States. In the Philippines, 83% of children experienced “moderate” physical discipline (including being “spanked” on the buttocks, hit with an object, slapped on the face and having hot pepper put in their mouth). Nearly one child in ten (9.9%) experienced harsh physical discipline (including being burnt, beaten up, kicked and smothered). More than seven children in ten (71%) experienced harsh psychological discipline such as being called names, being cursed and being threatened with abandonment. “Moderate” psychological discipline, including being yelled or screamed at or being refused food was experienced by 87% of children. Non-violent discipline, including explaining why a behaviour was wrong and telling a child to stop, was also widely used (experienced by 98% of children). The study found that rates of harsh physical discipline were dramatically higher in all communities than published rates of official physical abuse in any country, and that rates of physical punishment can vary widely among communities within the same country.
(Runyan, D. et al, 2010, “International Variations in Harsh Child Discipline”, Pediatrics, published online 2 August 2010, www.pediatrics.org)
According to statistics from UNICEF relating to the period 2001-2007, of girls and women aged 15-49, 24% 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 2009 study involving 2400 children through questionnaires, interviews and group discussions found that violence against children by adults in school is usually inflicted in the guise of discipline. The most common form of violence by adults was pinching, experienced by 18% of children aged 6 – 13 years. This was closely followed by forms of verbal violence such as shouting, and spanking with hands or an object, experienced by 16% of 6 – 10 year olds and 13% of 9 – 13 year olds.
(Plan Philippines, 2009, Toward a Child-Friendly Education Environment - A Baseline Study on Violence Against Children in Public Schools
http://plan-international.org/learnwithoutfear/files/philippines-toward-a-child-friendly-education-environment-english)
Large scale comparative research into the views and experiences of 3,322 children and 1,000 adults in 8 countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific (Cambodia, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mongolia, Philippines, Republic of Korea and Viet Nam) was carried out by Save the Children in 2005. The research in the Philippines involved 139 children (69 boys, 70 girls) from urban areas and 78 adults (34 men and 44 women). Methods used included research diaries, body maps, attitude survey, sentence completion, and discussions. Physical punishments mentioned by children in Philippines included hitting, punishing, spanking, whipping, use of implements, hair puling, ear twisting, and pinching.
(Beazley, H., S. Bessell, et al., 2006, What Children Say: Results of comparative research on the physical and emotional punishment of children in Southeast Asia and Pacific, 2005, Stockholm, Save the Children Sweden)