Physical punishment as perceived by parents in Russia: implications for professionals involved in the care of children

Abstract

To contribute to a knowledge base about the approach of families in Russia towards implementing physical punishment, a study was conducted with 100 parents in St Petersburg. A majority of the participants indicated that it was legitimate to use some measure of physical punishment. The use of an object as a measure was considered acceptable by one-third of the participants, especially towards children in the age range 5-12. Forty percent of the participants thought that physical punishment should be implemented in a less harsh way towards girls. The most frequently mentioned rationale for its implementation was violation of collectivist-based norms. A majority of the participants expressed disapproval for state intervention in the way parents handle inappropriate behavior of children unless the situation was extreme. They also indicated a medium-to-low level of willingness to seek help from formal sources if their child has a problem. Since physical punishment is considered a risk factor for physical abuse, the findings illuminate the necessity for professionals involved in the care of children to design prevention and intervention programs that could reduce this risk.

The Adjustment of Ethnic Minority and Majority Children Living in Israel: Does Parental Use of Corporal Punishment Act as a Mediator?

“…Replicating previous findings, this study found that FSU origin parents employed more physical punishment in their child‐rearing practices than their Israeli counterparts. This finding extends previous findings from research conducted with parents living in the FSU (Berrien et al , ; Shor, ) and among parents from the FSU living in Israel (Shor, ), implying that child‐rearing ideologies and practices adhered to by parents tend to preserve meaningful elements of the original culture (Frankel & Roer‐Bornstein, ; Levine, ).…”

“…The FSU culture emphasizes values such as achievement, emotional control, efficiency and organization in their children's development, whereas the Israeli culture emphasizes values such as social competence and autonomy (Rosenthal & Roer‐Strier, ). As a result, there may be widespread legitimacy for the use of corporal punishment toward children among parents in the FSU (Berrien et al , ; Shor, ). Our findings demonstrate a process by which belonging to a culturally different ethnic minority may be related to parental use of harsh discipline, which in turn is associated with children's prosocial behaviour.…”

“…Perhaps, in contrast to the expectation of children's obedience and conforming behaviour, research conducted in the FSU indicated higher levels of externalizing problems among children and adolescents compared with their American (Slobodskaya, 1999), British (Goodman et al, 2005) and Finnish (Kumpulainen et al, 1999) counterparts. Research conducted in the FSU also found that corporal punishment was a pervasive method of discipline among this population (Berrien et al, 1995;Shor, 2006). Indeed, using vignettes and hypothetical open-ended questions, Shor (1999) discovered that recent FSU immigrants to Israel reported perceiving corporal punishment as an acceptable parenting method.…”

Intergenerational Differences in Parenting Styles of Mother–Daughter Dyads Among Immigrants and Native-Born Israelis

“…Past research has examined CP predictors, focusing primarily on the individual characteristics of parents and children (Clément & Chamberland, 2009; Gagne′, Tourigny, Joly, & Pouliot-Lapointe, 2007). Parenting styles, social context, and cultural norms that may affect individual attitudes (Berrien, Aprelkov, Ivanova, Zhmurov, & Buzhicheeva, 1995; Grogan-Kaylor & Otis, 2007; Shor, 2006) were also examined, but to a lesser extent. Some of these studies focused particularly on immigrants (O’Brien, 2010; Regev, Gueron-Selab, & Atzaba-Poriab, 2012; Shor, 1999).…”

Physical Punishment in Christian Arab Families in Israel: Attitudes and Behaviour

“…Nevertheless, recent studies of child abuse ‘show clearly that this is [still] a very substantial and serious global problem’ (Krug and others 2002, p. 6). Across geographic and cultural boundaries, multiple studies have found that the great majority of parents believe that hitting children, at least in moderation, is sometimes necessary and has few if any negative effects (Gofin and others 2004; Shor, 2006; Stafford, 2004; Straus, 1994).…”