METHODOLOGY

This part will provide knowledge and some information from published studies about

Corporal Punishment. This part will also explain how corporal punishment can affect children

physically and emotionally and know if this punishment is good to discipline children with

their bad attitudes.

According to Dr. Manalo (2011), the disciplinary methods used by parents or

guardians that have authority over their children specifically examine the differences between

physical and non-physical forms of discipline. According to this study children who usually

receive punishment either physical or non-physical are those who are disobedient and naughty

and those who are not listening to their parents. However, Psychological discipline methods

such as shouting, yelling, or insulting a child can have a detrimental effect on the child's

emotions. It also indicates that no level of corporal punishment is acceptable. Those who have

experienced this punishment from their parents or guardians have a negative impact on them

that lasts for a long period of time and some of it has already had a phobia about this. A

negative impact includes coping with their emotions, conflicts with their relationship with

their parents, and a decline in their social and emotional well-being. The use of this physical

discipline toward children can have a long-lasting impact on them even in adulthood. The

memory of having this physical punishment will not remove from their mind and remain as a

bad memory of their childhood and cause negative feelings between the child and their

parents as the child might find it difficult to forgive or forget the physical punishment their
experience and the consequence of this can have a long-lasting effect on the mental health of

the children.

According to Bauld A. (2019), In Colombia, Corporal Punishment continues to be seen

and accepted as a punishment for children. Despite the negative effect of physical punishment

on a child’s developmental progress which may cause a higher risk of depression and other

mental health problems, only 53 countries have completely banned corporal punishment.

Jorge Cuartas, a student, and research assistant from Colombia, started his mission to study

the practices of corporal punishment and to make it easier to ban it in his country. In the year

2015, he found out that there are 1.7 million children, almost 40% of ages 5 years old were

exposed to physical punishment. Young children face the consequences and the violence from

their parents. Cuartas wants to develop strategies to protect children and to influence adults to

pay attention to this issue. Despite the efforts to educate adults or parents about the negative

effect of physical punishment on their children, millions of young children aged 2 to 4 years

old were still exposed. Cuartas spent two years urging the Colombian Congress to take up the

subject of corporal punishment, even though nearly half of Colombians approved of parental

use of physical punishment. He also started developing interventions to lessen corporal

punishment.

Parental utilization of corporal punishment (i.e., hitting or spanking a child for an

offense or transgression) is a typical method of disciplining children. Researchers have

detailed that more than 94% of guardians of little children use some form of corporal

punishment (Straus and Stewart, 1999) and that 75% of college students revealed
encountering some type of corporal punishment in their young life (Ateah and Parker, 2002).

The moral, religious, and political foundations of the debate regarding this method of

discipline have been extensively discussed (Benjet and Kazdin, 2003; Gershoff, 2002;

Greven, 1990; Kazdin and Benjet, 2003; Straus, 1994). The power of the discussion is

represented by the way that, for some parents, corporal punishment is a moral imperative and

a necessary aspect of parents’ obligation to discipline their children. And for other people,

they use corporal punishment as an act of aggression that should be banned by law. In fact,

several countries (e.g., Austria, Finland, Germany, Sweden, and even the Philippines) have

made corporal punishment illegal as a means of discipline for children at home and school

(Gershoff, 2002, Kazdin and Benjet, 2003).

The quality of parent-child relationships and internalization of parental norms were

negatively correlated with corporal punishment. Most investigations have not given the

information important to decide if this connection between more serious discipline and

adverse results is because of a direct or curvilinear connection between corporal punishment

and child adjustment. That is, it's possible that child adjustment issues will get worse as

corporal punishment gets more severe.