Spanking is an outmoded form of parenting in Canada.
The National Post reports that a new study has found that a sizeable proportion of millennial and Gen Z parents are still spanking their kids.
When asked whether they have ever spanked their child or children on their bottom with their hand, about 20 per cent of younger parents aged 18 to 27 (Gen Zs) and millennial parents (ages 28 to 42) said “yes.”
“Having a history of being spanked as a child was associated with increasing odds of spanking one’s own child,” the researchers report in the Canadian Journal of Public Health.
When the team explored beliefs about spanking, 15 per cent of the nearly 4,000 adults surveyed agreed with a statement that spanking is necessary to properly raise a child
Overall, “the prevalence of spanking history among Canadian adults is high,” with more than half (55.6 per cent) of respondents saying they were spanked at least three times during childhood, the researchers reported.
Nearly a quarter said the spanking left a mark or bruise, “or caused lasting physical pain.”
The finding supports abolishing a section of the criminal code that makes it legal for parents to spank their children ages two to 12, the researchers said.
Not only has mounting pressure linked spanking with the same harms as physical abuse, “no research has ever found that spanking is related to beneficial outcomes for children’s health and development,” the team wrote.
The study is the first to provide a national detailed picture of spanking.
While the data suggested a downward trend, the prevalence of spanking remains high, Tracie Afifi, a University of Manitoba professor and Canada Research Chair in child adversity and resilienece said.
Afifi, who is the first author, said, “All science is against it.”
At least 70 countries or states have legally abolished all corpor, “people al punishment of children. When Afifi talks to global audiences, “people are shocked that Canada isn’t a leader in this area. They say, ‘I don’t understand. Are you sure Canada still has a law that allows this?'”
There have been more than a dozen private members’ bills and legislative attempts over the years to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code, a contentious passage that reads every parent or person standing in the place of a parent “is justified in using force by way of correction” toward a child if that force doesn’t “exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances.”
While upholding the provision in 2004, the Supreme Court clarified that parents and caregivers can’t spank a child younger than two or older than 12. They can’t use objects like rulers or belts. The spanking can’t involve slaps or blows to the head, or anywhere on the body, so hard as to leave a mark.
Parents also can’t be motivated by “anger,” “frustration,” or an “abusive personality.”
