Parent's perspective on child rearing and corporal punishment

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe parents' current perception of corporal punishment associated to child rearing and its practices. METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES: There were studied 31 family members whose children were warded due to child abuse complaints (12) and not warded (19) at a health care unit and a local social service unit in the city of Belo Horizonte (Southeastern Brazil) in 2006. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and speech analysis was performed grouped by subjects and categories. ANALYSIS OF DISCOURSE: There was limitation of the respondents' speeches based on their production means. There was a diversity of conceptions on child rearing and its practices and corporal punishment was reported by all parents, even among those who expressed strong disapproval of this practice. Speeches were characterized by heterogeneity and polyphony with emphasis on the tradition speech, the religious speech and the popular scientific speech. Respondents did not express concepts of legal interdiction of corporal punishment or its excesses. CONCLUSIONS: The culture of corporal punishment of children is changing; tradition approving it has weakened and prohibition has been slowly adopted. Reinforcing legal actions against this practice can contribute to speed up the process to end corporal punishment of children.