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This paper deals with the prevalence of corporal punishment among three-year-old children and analyses in which families and towards which children corporal punishment is used. The paper is based on results from a longitudinal study of more than 5000 Danish children born in autumn 1995.
13 percent of the three-year-old children experience corporal punishment as part of their upbringing. Families where corporal punishment is used are characterised by: mothers who give priority to qualities like obedience and good manners, mothers and/or fathers with no education after primary schooling, mothers and/or fathers with poor mental health, and mothers who consider their children as “difficult”.
Furthermore these mothers characterise their children by restlessness, tantrums and physical aggressiveness in contact with their peers.
Analyses (based on logistic regression analysis) point out three major factors that increase the risk of three-year-old children being brought up with the use of corporal punishment. Firstly the mothers view upon the goal of the upbringing, secondly the mental health of the mothers and the fathers and thirdly the mothers' experience of the child and of the child's behaviour.