After a study indicated that physical punishment increased the likelihood of anxiousness, parents may be prohibited from smacking their children.
According to an Australian Catholic University study of 8,500 persons aged 16 to 24, six out of ten Australians stated they were hit at least four times as a youngster.
Females who were beaten as children were shown to be 1.8 times more likely to have a major depressive disorder and 2.1 times more likely to experience anxiety, according to the study.
In males they were also almost nearly twice as likely to experience depression and anxiety if they’d experienced corporal punishment in their younger years.
Professor Daryl Higgins, director of the Institute of Child Protection Studies at Australian Catholic University, is now leading the charge to make it unlawful for parents to smack their children.
In Australia, it is now lawful for parents to smack their children, however different states have different legislation.
Physical punishment in NSW should not last more than a few seconds, and children cannot be slapped on the head or neck.
In Victoria, there is no law prohibiting parents from physically punishing their children, unlike in other jurisdictions, it must be deemed “appropriate under the circumstances.”
‘It’s time to change the laws and to ensure that children are safe from violence in their home just as they are in childcare,’ Prof Higgins, one of the study’s lead researchers, told ABC Radio Melbourne.
He said children deserve equal protection from violence as adults do.
‘If you want to reduce population level anxiety for women and men, don’t hit them as children. There is a very real connection between corporal punishment and current and lifelong experience of mental ill health,’ he told The Herald Sun.
He said parents should be using positive techniques to discipline their kids instead of physical harm.
‘The only benefit is immediate compliance but we know it’s clearly linked to long term harm,’ he said.
Sixty-two countries around the world have made physical punishment against children illegal including Scotland, Sweden and Korea.
