NCJ Number
114594
Date Published
1988
Length
93 pages
Annotation
Interviews with government, agency, and school officials as well as parents in Sweden in 1981 and 1988 formed the basis of an examination of the effects of Sweden's 1979 law establishing that 'a child may not be subjected to physical punishment or other injurious or humiliating treatment.'
Abstract
The 1988 interviews confirmed the trends suggested by the 1981 findings, with one exception. In 1981 it appeared that Swedish parents were permissive and made few demands of their children. In 1988 parents are imposing rules and limits on children's behavior, but they do not resort to physical punishment. Swedish children never receive physical punishment in public and rarely receive even mild physical punishment in the home. Instead, parents almost universally resolve conflicts through discussion. They stop unwanted behavior by immobilizing a child through a firm hold on the child's arms and insisting on eye contact during discussion. Swedish parents apparently find it easier to avoid physical punishment than to defend using it and take the 1979 law for granted. Young parents say that they learned about the law in school. The Swedish experience suggests that given sufficient professional attention and public education parental use of physical punishment can be discouraged. 98 references and appended list of people interviewed, transcript of a Swedish curriculum component regarding physical punishment, and related materials.