Damage to mental and physical health, impaired cognitive development, behavioral problems, increased antisocial and aggressive behavior. These are some of the problems that the physical punishment imposed on children can bring throughout life, and which are listed in the “Child Punishment of Children: Impact on Public Health” report, launched by the World Health Organization this August.
According to the document, neuroimaging studies suggest that these episodes of violence can reduce the volume of the gray substance in the brain in areas associated with cognitive performance.
Studies are also cited that reinforce the association with mental health problems – including depression, low self -esteem, anxiety disorder, self -mutilation, alcohol abuse and suicidal drugs and trends that persist in adulthood.
Nevertheless, WHO recognizes that this is the most common type of violence against children. Approximately 1.2 billion children between 0 and 18 years old are subjected to physical punishments indoors per year. In some countries, violence also occurs at school or other environments.
Young children are also target
Physical punishments are also common among young children. UNICEF data compiled in this report show that 330 million children under the age of five are physically punished regularly a year – exactly the range considered most critical by experts.
“Violence has a negative impact, regardless of the stage of development. But a child who has been undergoing violence since childhood, which is when the brain has been in its greatest development, this has an impact on its brain. So it will reflect on the child’s learning and generates a very high cost on health issues,” explains Elisa Altimfim, a postgraduate program in Mental Health at USP Ribeirão Preto. She is also one of the authors of a document on prevention of violence against children of the Childhood Science Center.
Protection laws
Currently, 67 countries have laws that prohibit physical punishment for children and Brazil is among them. “We have very strong laws. It helps us, but we still have a high rate of violence. This of the violence that are notified, because we still have a underreport, demonstrated in several reports,” says Elisa.
The teacher believes that beyond the legislation, a cultural change is needed. “We have many families who have been cared for and educated by slaps and spanking. So they often end up using the same practices in which they were educated. It becomes an intergenerational cycle of violence.”
“Many times, parents end up hitting their children, shouting, using negative strategies at the time of anger, because they cannot regulate their emotions. They also use it for lack of knowledge about the child’s development and lack of practices that really work,” says Elisa.
It emphasizes the importance of parenting programs, offered today by governments in the federal and municipal level. “These are programs that support parents to use practices other than negative practices. They address different evidence -based strategies.”
Elisa makes a didactic comparison: “In the past, we didn’t know the importance either, for example, to wear the seat belt. Today we already know. The same thing is for physical punishment. In the past, we didn’t know the consequences. Today, we already know,” he says.
The consequences may even be economic. According to the WHO report, all violence against children annually costs 2 to 5% of world GDP. In addition, inaction against school violence, including corporal punishment, costs about $ 11 billion in lifelong lost income, according to the World Bank calculation.
