Seven years after the “anti-spanking law”, a quarter of parents continue to consider this gesture effective and acceptable for educational purposes, according to a barometer on ordinary educational violence published Friday by the Children’s Foundation.
“Ordinary educational violence (EOV) remains profoundly trivialized, even normalized,” deplores the Foundation on the occasion of the third edition of the Ifop barometer carried out every two years.
“32% of parents still believe that some children need corporal punishment to learn to behave well, 25% believe that spanking is an effective method for educating a child, and 23% consider that parents who use corporal punishment are right to do so.”
Described as an “anti-spanking law”, the law of July 10, 2019 had written in black and white in the civil code the fact that “parental authority” is exercised “without physical or psychological violence”. With this text, France became the 56th country to ban this type of violence.
A ruling from the Court of Cassation hit the nail on the head last January by recalling that no parental right of correction existed in French law.
But on the ground, “the legitimization of these practices as educational tools persists”, regrets the Foundation for Children, at the origin of the Ifop survey carried out in partnership with the Prévéo research team, and “ordinary violence” continues.
Over the last 12 months, 68% of parents say they have already “yelled or shouted at the child”, 30% have given “a slap on the hand, arm or leg”, and 19% “have used demeaning words like ‘stupid’ or ‘lazy'”.
In total, 83% of parents reported at least one verbal or psychological violence, and 37% at least one physical violence during the past year. Forty percent of parents also believe that children learn what is right or wrong through corporal punishment.
The Ifop survey was carried out online from January 30 to February 9 among 1,005 people, representative of parents of children aged 0 to 17.
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