Wafaa Elarousy, Abeer Al-Motiri and Nojoud Mousa Alrays
Corporal punishment (CP) is the use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not injury, for purposes of Correcting or controlling the child’s behavior. Across decades of researches, corporal punishment has been implicated in the etiology of criminal and antisocial behaviors by both children and adults. Aim of the study: The aim of the study was to assess corporal punishment from the children’s point of view. Methodology: Descriptive design was used. Non-probability “Quota” sampling was used in order to obtain a representative sample (300 children) from the 3 levels in two intermediate schools. A questionnaire was developed by the researchers after reviewing of literature. Results: Three hundred children participated in the research equally presented by gender and three intermediate educational levels. Fifty-two percent of the participants reported that they experienced corporal punishment; 60.2% of them did not remember the last time while corporal punishment was reported today by 12.8% and last week by 18% of them. About half of the participants were punished by their fathers and around 48.1% of the participants were punished by hands followed by use of stick (43%). Misbehavior, incomplete homework, missing prayer and bad school performance were the reasons for corporal punishment (39.1%, 15.4%, 9% and 7.7% respectively). No statistical significant differences were found in relation to the use of corporal punishment and family size, father’s employment or parent’s health status. Most of the participants reported that they will not use CP in future with their children. Conclusion: The study revealed that 52% of the participants experienced corporal punishment; about half of the participants were punished by their fathers and around 48.1% of the participants were punished by hands followed by stick (43%).
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