It pays to spare the rod

Over many years, Sweden had campaigns about the negative impact of physical and emotional punishment on children.

Over many years, Sweden had campaigns about the negative impact of physical and emotional punishment on children.

Published Nov 19, 2014

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Pretoria - When an adult does something wrong in the workplace, his boss is not going to hit him for that mistake.

So why smack a child in a school setting when he does the same?

Is it because he can’t retaliate, making him an easy target?

Will the pain of hitting the child get the message across to never make the same mistake again?

These are just some of the questions that formed part of the discussion at the Children’s Rights and Work against Corporal Punishment workshop held in Sweden this month.

Journalists from several countries affected by corporal punishment were invited by the Swedish Institute to study the work Sweden has done since abolishing corporal punishment 35 years ago.

They heard that it took many years for corporal punishment to stop because of the beliefs of some parents who were raised in a time when it was acceptable or, some felt, ordained.

Over many years, Sweden had campaigns about the negative impact of physical and emotional punishment on children. The main aim was to educate parents, guardians and teachers on the long-term damage to children who are punished physically.

They also stressed the importance of treating children with respect and understanding in order for them to grow up to be responsible citizens.

For the law to be effective, parents were presented with alternative ways to discipline children and government provided support structures.

“It’s all about a relationship with the child. Be clear when you say no, be firm. When the relationship is good the child will understand,” said psychologist Eva Harnesk.

The population in Sweden is one fifth of South Africa’s and one could argue that the dynamics and cultures are too different to compare. But one could argue that the treatment of children should not be based on a population, but rather on individual actions towards them.

General secretary of Save the Children Sweden, Elisabeth Dahlin, said even though there were challenges there should never be a question about the most fundamental rights of the child. “We have to keep the debate burning and give tools to parents… It takes a generation to get that change.”

Law doctor and senior lecturer at Stockholm University Pernilla Leviner said there was no question about the ban of corporal punishment even though combating violence against children was a complex issue.

“It is just not an easy thing to do. It is something society has to work on a continuum.”

She said the main aim of the ban was to make clear that children had a right to an upbringing without violence, to change attitudes and curb the use of corporal punishment, and not to criminalise parental behaviour.

This meant that the ban did not carry a sanction or penalty for parents and even though all forms of physical punishment were “proactively banned” in the parental code not all forms of actions included in the ban were criminalised in the penal code.

In the 1960s more than 50 percent of parents were still using physical punishment, but by 2011 about 92 percent had changed their attitudes.

The numbers of children who have reported being smacked declined from 33 percent in the 1990s to 14 percent in the early 2000s with less than 10 percent reporting that they had been severely or repeatedly smacked.

However, despite this violence against children is still a problem.

Leviner said the risk factors of the violence included parents affected by alcohol and drug abuse and children with chronic diseases and disabilities being beaten twice as often as other children. Parents not born in Sweden and those with lower education used corporal punishment more.

Leviner said the only way to improve the ban was to constantly evaluate its implications and effects.

On Thursday, the Department of Basic Education, Save the Children SA and experts from Sweden will gather in Pretoria for a seminar on ending corporal punishment .

 

Sweden tells of negative impact of physical, emotional punishment

Family therapist Lotta Molander-Shanti has been exposed to many things in her life. And pain is one of them.

For the past 15 years Molander-Shanti has helped parents and children talk about their pain at the Alla Kvinnors Hus (All Women’s House), the largest and oldest women’s shelter in Stockholm, Sweden.

“A lot of the time people come to Sweden thinking we’re all about equality, but domestic violence is one of the biggest problems we have. Sexual, physical, psychological – it affects all classes”. It’s what she describes as “a very democratic disease”.

The shelter was formed in 1979, the same year the Swedish ban on corporal punishment came into law. Recently a kindergarten was introduced so that abused women could live with their children.

 

“This is not a women-only problem but rather a problem of the entire society,” said Molander-Shanti.

 

She said that because children were so receptive, parents should be open with them and not try to shield them from expressing feelings.

“Children can see, can feel and can hear wrong. They need to be allowed to share their feelings,” she said.

 

“We use colours and use the body for them to describe how they are feeling. They identify the feeling and place it on that part of their body where they feel it belongs,” she said.

 

On the other side of town, there is a place that is a safe haven for abused children.

They provide a useful example for South Africa, with the global 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign coming up.

Barnahus (House of the Child) is a child-friendly centre where social workers, police officers and other authorities work under one roof.

“Barnahus is an environment where children can be comforted without feeling like they have to tell their story over again. They tell it once and we deal with it from there,” said co-ordinator Olricah Rehls.

 

As the biggest child centre, it attends to about 2 500 cases a year covering a population of 1.2 million people in Stockholm.

The centre focuses on four main aspects – child protection services, police, prosecution and medical and mental health. Staff members include five social workers, 50 police officers including 42 investigators, two child psychologists, a trauma counsellor, a doctor, three specialist nurses and three prosecuting officers.

“Our job is to investigate and to mainly look out for the best of the child. Their story is the most important,” said police officer Johanna Stigsson.

An intensive training programme on how to interview the children is a key skill Barnahus provides.

Interviewers go on a 10-week course and then another five-week refresher course a year or two later, said co-ordinator Katri Brattstrom.

Barnahus houses offices, a therapy section, five interviewing and monitoring rooms, six adult interview rooms and a medical exam room.

“We share information with each other. We can work hand-in-hand but have different missions to help the child,” said Brattstrom.

Working together ensures that the child’s needs and best interests are met and produces quality work and legal security for children in the community.

Thanks to the system, children are able to tell their stories in a safe setting within two weeks of abuse being reported and investigations take no longer than three months.

Children between the ages of 5 and 8 are particularly affected by abuse and they are sent to the centre for help.

The co-ordinators said the most difficult period was the holiday season when the family were all together and tensions could run high.

 

“It’s a tricky business sometimes. But in the end, the right of the child has to be first,” said Brattstrom.

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